Vietnam expects to earn $1.55 billion from pangasius exports this year, up from $1.4 billion last year, state media reported.
The target was announced at a meeting on pangasius fish in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on Jan. 18, chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Vu Van Tam.
The ministry plans to expand pangasius fish farming to 9,000 hectares in 2011 from 6,300 hectares in 2010 in Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s largest supplier of the fish.
The ministry also expects off-shore fishing aquatic output of between 1.2 and 1.3 million tons.
Local fish farmers are urged to register their codes and conditions to make it easy to track product origins.
Provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang, Ben Tre and Can Tho in the Mekong Delta remain key players in the industry’s plan, which emphasizes food hygiene and safety and reasonable prices.
The plan also calls for further expansion of market share abroad and an increase in shipments of value-added products, while also expanding domestic market share.
Last year, the European Union was the largest market for Vietnamese pangasius fish, followed by the US, Mexico and Russia.
The Fisheries Directorate affirmed that fish farms and processing establishments have strictly abided by rules on input product quality, such as feeds and veterinary medicine.
Pangasius fish processors all have to be recognized as meeting food hygiene and safety standards before gaining licenses to conduct shipments to the EU, Japan, China and other markets. (vietnamplus)
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