December 26, 2007

Vietnam confident of US$3.75 billion-target in seafood revenues

Vietnam is now among the world's top ten seafood exporters as it expects an annual earning of US$3.75 billion this year, up almost 12 percent over 2006, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

As the nation's fourth largest hard currency earner, the seafood industry was making major strides in improving product quality with double shipments to demanding markets such as the EU, US and Japan.

As of November, there are already 245 enterprises were shipping to the EU market, 321 to China, 139 to Canada, and 342 to South Korea. Vietnam seafood is sold to 130 countries worldwide, says MARD.

MARD said the seafood sector had made major progress in improving product quality during Vietnam's first year of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.

Nguyen Tu Cuong, head of the National Fisheries Quality Veterinary Department (NAFIQAVED), said that, since early this year, his agency has tightened its oversight over food hygiene and pushed for greater business responsibility for and strengthened grassroots management of material quality.

Emerging technical barriers from foreign importers were still impeding the industry, however, according to the ministry. It called for closer co-ordination among regulators and businesses to further improve product quality in order to ensure meeting the industry's export target of US$4.25 billion in 2008.

The sector also planned to intensify investment in bio-technology for large-scale seafood farming, reduce import tariffs in an effort to ease the raw material shortage facing seafood processors, and increase the production of value-added high-end products.