Vietnam is expected to export over 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of tra and basa, two most common types of catfish in the country, this year, up from over 700 million dollars last year, Saigon Liberation newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Vietnam will record an output of some 1 million tons of tra and basa this year, up from 800,000 tons last year, the newspaper quoted Ngo Phuoc Hau, chairman of the Freshwater Fish Committee under the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, as saying.

Vietnam earned nearly 3.4 billion dollars from exporting different kinds of seafood in 2006, up 23.1 percent against 2005. It has targeted an annual seafood export growth of over 9 percent in the 2006-2010 period.

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.

The country is also focusing on increasing quality of the products, intensifying their trade promotion, and enhancing its capacity of forecasting seafood prices and export demand, according to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

Source: Xinhua