A 20-people delegation of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and 14 largest seafood enterprises in the U.S. state are promoting the export of their seafood products to the Vietnamese market.

Lawrence D. Bshnell, president of Gratia Dei Seafoods LLC, a seafood firm from Alaska, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that representatives of seafood companies in his delegation lauded Vietnam’s potential for consuming fresh and processed seafood products and considered the market as a seafood consumption center of the region.

Alaska’s seafood products have successfully gotten into the Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and South Korean markets. 

It is now high time to enter the Vietnamese market where the economy is growing fast and consumers are fond of seafood.

Most of Alaska’s seafood products are put under strict control. Salmon and pollack are frozen right after they are caught, so they are fresh. 

“We want to access the [Vietnamese] market and provide information about the catching and preservation of U.S. seafood to more Vietnamese consumers,” Bshnell said.

At an event on Wednesday evening to connect Vietnamese and Alaska companies, Susan Burns, U.S. Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, said that seafood plays an important role in the two countries’ trade cooperation.

U.S. consumers have approached Vietnam’s seafood, such as shrimp and tuna, while the U.S.’s lobster, king crab, salmon, codfish, and pollack exports have recorded positive growth in the Southeast Asian country.

Alaska’s seafood exports to Vietnam have increased steadily, from US$9 million in 2018 to $27 million in 2022. 

This has contributed significantly to the agricultural trade relations between the two countries.

Vietnam is currently the ninth-largest import market of the U.S.’s agricultural products while the U.S. is the largest buyer of Vietnamese farm produce.

“Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive partnership this year, I am proud to inform you that the bilateral agricultural trade rose from more than $4 billion in 2011 to nearly $10 billion in 2022,” Burns said.

U.S. firms forecast the growth to be faster following the promotion activities of U.S. enterprises that want to seek partners, distributors, and retailers to bring Alaska’s salmon, codfish, pollack, and especially lobster to Vietnam.

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