Vietnam eyes bigger seafood export in 2006-2010

Vietnam has set targets of annual seafood export growth of over 9 percent in the 2006-2010 period, and seafood export turnovers of 4-4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, according to local newspaper People on Thursday.

To this end, the Ministry of Fisheries has put forth six measures relating to market, material, processing, foodstuff safety and hygiene, fishery promotion and training, and policy development.

Vietnam is boosting export of different seafood items, including shrimps, prawns, catfish and octopuses to traditional markets such as China, the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea, and some new ones like the Middle East, East Europe, Africa and South America. It is also focusing on increasing quality of the products, intensifying their trade promotion, and enhancing its capacity of forecasting seafood prices and export demand.

Vietnam gained seafood export revenues of 3.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 24.6 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office. It is estimated to make the revenues of 3.3 billion dollars this year, up from over 2.7 billion dollars last year.

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, according to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

Source: Xinhua