December 5, 2007

Vietnam's Jan-Nov seafood exports earn US$3.447 billion

Vietnam has raked in US$370 million in seafood exports in November this year, bringing total export revenues to US$3.447 billion, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The figure represented an on year rise of 11.9 percent and accounted for 95.75 percent of the country's yearly plan.

According to official figures provided by the Vietnam General Customs Department, the country exported 756,476 tonnes of various types of seafood, worth US$3.077 billion between January and October, up by 13.1 percent on- year in volume and 12.3 percent in value.

Up to 60 percent of the revenues were contributed by EU (US$750 million), Japan (US$605.5 million) and the US (US$594.22 million). Purchase by Japan and US was down 13 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

South Korea imported US$213.405 million worth of seafood from Vietnam, up by 26.7 percent on year, ranking the fourth largest buyer.

As of late October, shrimp export revenues reached US$1.226 billion, followed by tra and basa catfish export with US$809.219 million, accounting 65 percent of Vietnam's total seafood export revenue. Export of catfish is expected to jump to more than US$1 billion by the year's end.

Vietnam hopes to export US$3.6 billion worth of seafood products in 2007, up from US$3.36 billion last year.