Vietnamese enterprises have so far this year fetched nearly US$845 million from seafood exports, up 22.5 per cent against the same period last year, according to the latest statistics released by the government.
In April alone, total earnings from seafood exports are estimated to reach US$250 million, down US$13 million from the previous month due to a shortage of input ingredients, especially in the Mekong Delta region, the largest seafood processing zone in Vietnam.
This year, Vietnam is expected to gain US$2.8 billion from seafood shipments and US$4 billion by 2010. The major Vietnamese seafood importers include the EU, the US, and Japan.
Fisheries have become an important economic sector with their contribution representing more than 4 per cent of the national GDA, making Vietnam one of the world’s top ten aquatic product exporters.
In the 1985-2005 period, aquatic product outputs increased by 224 per cent from 808,000 to more than 3.4 million tons, with farmed products rising 622 per cent from 23,200 tons to more than 1.4 million tons. Earnings from aquatic product exports grew 30 fold from US$90 million in 1985 to US$2.7 billion last year.
The sector currently employs about 4 million workers. It has seen the restructuring of its activities from those mainly focused on the exploitation of marine resources along the coastline 20 years ago to off-shore fishing, aquaculture, processing and other services.
In 1985, Vietnam had only 72 frozen product processors with a total capacity of 381 tons per day; it now has 439 factories with a combined capacity of more than 4,260 tons per day.
Many factories have been equipped with modern processing systems to turn out high-quality products, meeting the standards for export to the EU, the Republic of Korea, the US, Canada and Japan.
The country has continually raised the effectiveness of its fishing activities. It has developed a fleet of 90,880 fishing vessels with a total capacity of 5,318,000 HP.
With about 10 million ha of water surface suitable for aquatic farming, the country has developed aquaculture to reduce poverty and increase the incomes of farmers in many localities.
VNA, GSO
Vietnamese
