November 3, 2006

Vietnam's seafood sector to stress value-added products

Vietnam's fisheries sector would work towards high-valued products rather than raw materials in the next four years, according to an export programme which has just been approved by the country's Prime Minister.

Annual export revenues are expected to increase to between US$4 billion and $4.5 billion by 2010.

The processing industry is working to reach international standards in terms of technology to boost the earnings of the fisheries sector.

Efforts would also focus on boosting large-scale aquaculture and better coordination between farmers, scientists and regulators to increase mass-production quantities.

The Government also plans to issue preferential policies to encourage investment in this sector's large-scale fish product-processing centres and regions with large numbers of fish markets.

Most would go towards aquaculture and upgrading of the processing industry, the sector's strategy report revealed.

The sector would ship 25 percent of the nation's total seafood exports to Japan, 23-25 percent to the US, 20-22 percent to the European Union, 7-9 percent to China, and 8 percent to South Korea in the next four years.