Mekong Delta targets US$2.6 bln in shrimp exports
Exporters from the Mekong Delta are striving to rake in US$1.3 billion from selling shrimp abroad in the latter half of this year, bringing the year’s export earnings from the product to US$2.6 billion, or an annual rise of 2.2 percent.
Breeding farms have been expanded by 600,000 ha raising mainly black-tiger and white-legged shrimps in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, SocTrang, Kien Giang, TraVinh, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, and Long An provinces, according to the Steering Committee for the Southwest region.
The breeders have been advised to focus on renovating farming techniques and applying environmentally-friendly models such as the Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) and VietGAP certificates to produce high-quality products for both domestic and foreign markets.
In the first half of this year, they harvested 285,000 tonnes of shrimp, including 171,000 tonnes of black-tiger, which brought in US$1.26 billion from abroad sales.
In 2013, Vietnam for the first time earned over US$3 billion from shrimp exports, up 36 percent against the previous year. With this achievement, the country secured third place among the world’s shrimp exporters.