June 19, 2006

Vietnam's Ca Mau province to increase seafood exports by US$100 million a year

Ca Mau has targeted US$1 billion in seafood exports by 2010 with an average increase of $100 million a year, according to the province's Department of Fisheries.

The province would expand the types of seafood it processes from tiger prawn to fish, cuttlefish and crab to meet this target, the department said. However, tiger prawns as a percentage of seafood exports would increase from 68 percent to 80 percent by 2010, according to department officials.

Production capacity would come from building more seafood processing facilities.

About 40,000 tonnes increased capacity would come from six or more new seafood processing plants to be built at a cost of VND240 billion (US$15 million).

New production facilities would improve quality management and food hygiene safety, allowing more enterprises to apply international quality management standards, officials from the province said.

The US, Japan and the EU are the province's key export markets, while Australia, Canada, Russia, China and South Korea are seen as potential growth markets.

Last year, the province earned US$515 million from seafood exports.