Cà Mau Province's farmers are rushing to harvest raw shrimp due to US tariffs causing shrimp prices to fall sharply. — Photo congly.vn

CÀ MAU — In the face of the US announcing higher tariff on Vietnamese goods, including seafood products, Cà Mau Province has proactively reviewed and assessed the impact of the levy on this industry, ensuring that the production chain, especially shrimp exports, is not disrupted.

The US has been one of the major export markets of the country in general and Cà Mau in particular. Last year, the province's export turnover to the US market reached US$76.8 million, accounting for 6.07 per cent of the province's export turnover.

In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the province's total seafood export turnover reached $295 million, up 9 per cent over the same period last year. The province has five enterprises that export to the US market, with a turnover of $12.9 million, accounting for 4.36 per cent of the province's export turnover.

Immediately after the US announced the tariff rate on imported goods from Việt Nam, Vietnamese businesses did not dare to offer prices or sign sales contracts, and stopped exporting goods to US customers.

As a result, the price of raw shrimp immediately dropped sharply.

According to reports from some businesses and authorities, the reason for the price drop is that shrimp farmers know about the US tariff rate and fear that shrimp prices will drop, so many farmers have decided to harvest early and sell to businesses.

This leads to businesses being overloaded in production and storage.

To regulate the amount of imported goods, businesses are forced to reduce their purchasing prices. When businesses reduce their purchasing prices, farmers become more worried and harvest more massively, leading to a rapid decrease in prices.

From the above negative causes and solutions, it can be seen that if there are no timely measures, the shrimp industry of the province will be broken, and the damage to farmers and businesses will be huge.

On April 9, US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause in implementing the new tariffs on Vietnamese goods.

Solutions to avoid disruption of the production chain

Currently, the Vietnamese Government has been actively negotiating with the US to reduce the tariff rate. Việt Nam's goal is to reduce the tariff rate on goods between the two sides to zero.

However, if the worst case scenario of stopping shrimp exports to the US market occurs, shrimp output of Cà Mau enterprises will be affected and will need to find new markets.

The provincial People's Committee believes that if businesses actively seek new markets and negotiations between the Vietnamese and US governments result in lower tariff rates, the impact on shrimp production will not be significant.

Therefore, farmers and businesses should not panic and worry unnecessarily.

To minimise negative impacts, stabilise production, processing and consumption markets of the province's seafood industry, the provincial People's Committee has directed the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Agriculture and Environment, and the Cà Mau Seafood Processing and Export Association to continuously update the situation, closely monitor new developments in tariffs and related policies to promptly report to the provincial People's Committee.

Relevant agencies will also monitor and grasp the difficulties and problems of businesses and farmers in production to promptly consider, resolve or propose to competent authorities timely measures.

These agencies also need to urgently provide updated information to farmers, and support and encourage farmers to avoid massive harvesting and selling to businesses.

Seafood processing and exporting enterprises in the province have been recommended to ensure the purchase of raw shrimp for farmers to stabilise production and avoid uncontrolled price drops.

The province will support and encourage businesses to boost exports to other traditional markets such as the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia.

To expand the market, businesses need to actively participate in the trade promotion activities of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the province.

In addition, the province will also propose that the Government have policies to support farmers and businesses to overcome difficulties, including proposing capital support packages so that businesses can purchase raw materials for production in case the US still does not change the announced tariff rate.

On April 2, US President Trump has announced a 46 per cent reciprocal tariff on certain goods imported from Việt Nam, the second highest among all exporting countries to the US.

Việt Nam is one of the US’s key trade partners, with its exports to the market reaching around $124 billion in 2023. Major industries, including textiles, footwear, furniture, electronic components and seafood, will be significantly impacted if the 46 per cent tariff is implemented. VNS