August 2, 2004

Vietnam To Intensify Investment In Aquaculture Sector
 

Vietnam will invest 5 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (US$318.5 million) in restoring and developing sea, brackish and freshwater livestock between now and 2010. This move is intended to promote the country's aquatic products and resources.

With regards to the money, 1.8 trillion VND (US$114.7 million) will come from the state budget, and the remainder from other economic sectors, according to the Fisheries Ministry on Monday.

The money will be used to expand national and regional water livestock nurseries, especially those in poor coastal and mountainous areas. Priorities will be given to developing high-yield strains, creating new hybrid fishes and shrimps which are suitable with local climates and resistant to diseases, thereby ensuring a stable supply of baby livestock to local farmers.

Specifically, the aquaculture sector plans to produce 35 billion baby tiger shrimps, more than 500 million baby crabs and 11 billion baby mollusks. It also aims to supply more than 3.5 billion baby green-clawed prawns, 700 million baby catfish, as well as more than 12 billion brackish and freshwater fries to fish-rearing farms across the country between now and 2010.

Vietnam, which boasts 4,800 baby tiger shrimp-raising centers and 400 fry nurseries, harvests an estimated 2.5 million tons of seafood a year, including one million tons from one million hectares of water surface, said the ministry.

The country, which exported nearly US$1.2 billion worth of seafood in the first seven months of this year, which is a year-on-year decrease of 1.7 percent, is expected to obtain seafood export turnovers of US$2.6 billion in 2004, including US$1 billion from shrimps.

It shipped abroad more than US$2.2 billion worth of seafood last year, mainly to the United States, Japan, the European Union and China. The figure is up 10.6 percent from the previous year.