Vietnam Reaps Bigger Seafood Export Earnings in 7 Months

Vietnam earned over 2.3 billion U. S. dollars from shipping seafood abroad in the first seven months of this year, up 17.7 percent over the same period last year, according to a local industry association on Thursday.

In July alone, the country gained 430 million dollars from exporting the products, including prawns, catfish and cuttlefish, to different markets, including China, the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea, the Middle East, East Europe and South America, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

Vietnam's seafood export revenues are estimated at roughly 4.3 billion dollars in 2008, up from nearly 3.8 billion dollars in 2007.

The country made a total seafood output of nearly 2.6 million tons of seafood, including roughly two million tons of fishes and 231,600 tons of prawns, lobsters and shrimps, in the January-July period, posting a year-on-year increase of 11.4 percent. Aquaculture ponds nationwide churned out roughly 1.3 million tons of seafood, up 25 percent, and fishing nearly 1.3 million tons, up 0.1 percent, said the association.

Vietnam's fishery sector is facing a big inventory of catfish in the southern Mekong Delta mainly due to their declining prices in the world market. This year, it is estimated to reap over 1.2 billion dollars from exporting over 500,000 tons of catfish, mainly to the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and Southeast Asian countries, the association said.

Source: CRIEnglish