THAILAND — June 26, 2014 — Thailand is still shipping seafood to the United States and Europe as normal despite the recent accusations of slave labour, according to the Commerce Ministry's survey of trading partners and Thai exporters.
"Importers are still ordering Thai fishery products as usual. Exports to the US and the European Union should not be affected by the problem," Srirat Rastapana, permanent secretary of the Commerce Ministry, said yesterday.
However, the Thai fishery industry needs to fix its image soon, as it could make sales abroad difficult and factor into consumers' decision-making in the future, analysts warn.
Thai trade officials in the US and EU markets have reported that Thai shipments to the US have not yet slowed down after Washington downgraded Thailand in its human-trafficking report because most importers and consumers still have high confidence in Thai fishery firms, which have done business with them for many years.
Japan is the largest market for Thai fishery exports so far this year, taking 27.1 per cent of total exports by value. In the first four months, the US accounted for 17.1 per cent, the EU for 13 per cent, mainland China 6.1 per cent, Vietnam 5.2 per cent, South Korea 5.1 per cent, Hong Kong 3.9 per cent and Canada 2.8 per cent.
The labour issue just recently popped up. The Commerce Ministry will closely monitor the impact in the long run as initially it has only had a psychological impact on customers. The government and fishery-related industries need to prove to the public urgently that Thailand has high concern for labour problems and strongly opposes forced labour, Srirat said.
Fishery exports this year should grow as normal, except for only shrimp exports, which will decline as the disease outbreak in hatcheries has not been clearly solved.
Seafood exports, including shrimp, dropped 12.2 per cent in the first four months to US$1.99 billion (Bt64.6 billion). Seafood exports make up 2.7 per cent of the country's total export value.
Poj Aramwattananont, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association, said seafood traders had tried to sell products to various markets and reduce the dependency on giant markets like the US and EU for many years, as emerging economies proliferate. Sales to the US and EU would not affect Thai seafood growth.
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