Seafood exports to reach US$7b

The imports will include US$3.5 billion from shrimp exports, US$1.7 billion from tra (Pangasiu) fish, US$450 million from tuna, and US$470 million from squid and octopus.

Of note, at a VASEP conference in HCM City last week, business insiders said, for the first time VASEP witnessed a 10% decrease in its membership, as difficulties and risks have forced some businesses to go bankrupt.

Officials asked managerial agencies to issue concrete regulations on aquaculture and more favourable policies to assist their operations.

Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, general director of the Hai Nam Ltd Company, said domestic seafood companies have often faced difficulties in purchasing materials due to competition with Chinese traders, as they must import materials.

Therefore, she said the state should put in place policies on attracting capital for developing material regions and encouraging fishermen to increase their volumes of exploiting seafood products.

Also, the association said Vietnam's aquatic exports have been recovering in the first five months of 2014, with a year-on-year increase of 21% in value to US$2.86 billion.

Reports at the conference said the shipment of shrimp brought home revenues of US$1.4 billion, jumping a huge 63% from the same period last year, and accounting for 49% of the total aquatic exports.

Notably, the value of shrimp destined for the US, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland soared by 120%, 108%, and 109%, respectively.

Over the same period, the shrinkage of tra fish farming areas and output, as well as falling demand from EU countries and the US, cut this commodity's turnover by 7.6% to US$655 million.

Meanwhile, a 23% drop was seen in earnings from exported tuna, standing at US$195 million, due to a fall in the shipment to some key markets, such as the US, Japan and the EU.

At the same time, Vietnam gained US$172 million from the export of squid and octopus, rising 8.5% from one year before.

VASEP officials said, under a fisheries development strategy until 2020 approved by the Prime Minister, that Vietnam targets US$8 billion in aquatic exports in 2015 and US$10 billion in 2020.