June 16, 2005

Vietnam's seafood industry seeks new markets

Vietnam's seafood industry is seeking new markets in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, following unmet export targets this year.

Importers' strict sanitary standards and anti-dumping tariffs by the US on "tra" and "basa" catfish are hampering efforts to reach the goal.

To achieve this year's target, the industry needs monthly export revenue of US$250 million for the rest of 2005, the government said. However, monthly export revenue has never exceeded the US$220 million mark, with the first five months recording earnings of US$862 million.

From January to May, Vietnam recorded an average of US$31 million per month in export revenue to the US market, a 31.5 percent fall from the same period last year.

The Vietnamese seafood industry has proposed that the government should increase loans to seafood enterprises and remove any tariff and customs procedure-related difficulties to increase exports. Vietnamese government trade offices in other countries were also requested to give priority to marketing local seafood.