Vietnam’s seafood exports reportedly reached US$2 billion in the past eight months of this year, up 21.4 per cent on-year, with US$290 million fetched in August alone, according to the Ministry of Fisheries (MoF).
The high revenue is mostly attributed to all-out efforts made by domestic seafood enterprises in diversifying product ranges and finding new markets in the European Union for key products including tra and basa catfish.
Strong orders in the US and Europe for tra and basa catfish continue to buoy sales, prompting many seafood processors to buy greater volumes for export, MoF officials said.
With the stronger growth, the country will easily beat the target of reaping seafood export earnings of US$2.8 billion this year, up from over US$2.7 billion last year, the ministry said.
Apart from seeking new markets for its seafood products, Vietnam is boosting shipments of different seafood items, including shrimps and prawns, to traditional markets such as China, the United States, the European Union and Japan, 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.
The proportion of processed seafood products continued to grow this year, with strong development in processing centers nationwide.
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.
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