Vietnam earns 4.2 bln USD from seafood export in 7 months

HANOI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- In the first seven months of 2014, Vietnam pocketed some 4.2 billion U.S. dollars from shipping seafood to world market, up 24.5 percent year-on-year, according to a recent report by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Local Bao Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade News), an online newspaper under Vietnam's Industry and Trade on Thursday quoted the report as saying that during seven-month period, the United States remained the largest market for Vietnamese seafood, with an increase of 41.3 percent year-on-year in export revenue.

In January-July period, Vietnam continued to witness growth in export revenue to other major markets including Japan, South Korea and China, with a year-on-year increase of 7.32 percent, 51.33 percent and 35.28 percent, respectively, said MARD.

Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said on Bao Cong Thuong on Thursday that Vietnam's seafood export revenue is forecast to hit 7 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, up 4.5 percent year-on-year.

Among those, shrimp's export revenue is expected to reach a record high of 3 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 while catfish, another key item of Vietnamese seafood, is likely to bring the country 1.8 billion U.S. dollars this year.

In 2014, slight increase will be seen in other seafood export products of Vietnam including tuna, octopus, among others, said Hoe.

However, in 2014, Vietnamese seafood exports are still facing difficulties such as economic depression in major markets, lack of material for processing, decreasing material quality, assessed Hoe.

Seafood is a major income earner and one of Vietnam's major export commodities. The fisheries industry targets an export turnover of 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, according to VASEP.

Source: Xinhua