April 7, 2008

Vietnam ready to export US$3.4 billion seafood

Vietnam's seafood industry is poised to meet an increasing export target worth around US$3.4 billion, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

The seafood exports in the first quarter of 2008 totalled US$551 million, up 11 percent on-year, with March profits reaching US$300 million.

However, the ministry has cautioned that challenges remain due to concerns on climate changes and increased global competition.

The ministry pointed that one major issue for Vietnamese seafood exporters is the quality of output.

Vietnam currently caters to some of the world's most demanding markets in terms of import regulations, like the US, Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

The rejection of Vietnamese seafood shipments to Japan in 2007 due to antibiotic residue has prompted the industry to raise its quality control processes.

Vietnamese officials, aside from looking on exports, are also keen to boost consumption in the domestic market to offset the intensity of global export competitiveness.

Analysts said that the downside of this is that quality produce gets reserved for the profitable export market while lower-quality economy produce is made available domestically.