August 14, 2007

Mekong Delta hopes to become Vietnam's seafood export hub

Provinces in the Mekong Delta have set off on an ambitious plan to build 32 more seafood processing plants from now until 2010 in order to keep pace with the region's flourishing seafood export industry.

The new plants will bring the total number of aquatic processing plants in the region to 68, capable of churning out 534,000 tonnes of seafood per year. The figure is expected to increase the region's total annual capacity by more than 1 million tonnes.

Under the projection, the volume of tra and basa catfish products exported to Asia, the European Union and North America will hike to 230,000 tonnes by 2010 worth US$600 million. That figure is then expected to double again by 2020.

Meanwhile, local processors project 38,000 tonnes of seafood for domestic consumption by 2010 and 90,000 tonnes a decade later.

In order to fulfil the targets, local processors plan to increase the acreage of tra and basa catfish farming to 10,200 hectares to bring in an output of 860,000 tonnes by 2010; and 16,600 ha and 1.9 million tonnes by 2020.

By 2010, the Mekong Delta will establish more than 2,100 small fry nursing centres, which will increase to 3,000 by 2020. These facilities are expected to yield 2.7 billion and 6.7 billion of fry by 2010 and 2020, respectively.

The seafood development roadmap is being funded to the tune of nearly 6.5 trillion VND (US$406 million).