Vietnam is estimated to post seafood export turnovers of 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 21.2 percent, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Tuesday.

Japan is the biggest importer of local seafood, followed by the United States, China, the European Union and Russia, the association said, noting that frozen fish and shrimps are Vietnam's key items with respective estimated export volumes of 302,300 tons and 106,400 tons in the nine-month period.

Vietnam is boosting exports of different seafood items, including shrimps and prawns, to the traditional markets, and some new ones such as the Middle East, East Europe, Africa and South America.

It is also focusing on increasing quality of the products, intensifying trade promotion, and enhancing its capacity of forecasting seafood prices and export demand.

Vietnam is expected to reap seafood export revenues of more than three billion dollars this year, up from over 2.7 billion dollars last year, said the association.

The country has planned to raise its aquaculture acreage to 1.1 million hectares with output of nearly 2.1 million tons in 2010 from expected 980,000 hectares with output of roughly 1.5 million tons in 2006, the association said.

Source: Xinhua