July 30, 2008

Vietnam seafood exports rise 17.7 percent on-year

Vietnam has exported an estimated US$2.43 billion of seafood products between January and July 2008, an on-year rise of 17.7 percent, said the government's General Statistics Office (GSO).

The latest report from GSO also showed an 11.6 percent increase in export revenue for July to US$430 million, up from US$380 million in June.

Vietnam's aquatic product output for July 2008 was about 427,000 tonnes, up 15 percent from last July. This brings the total output in the first seven months of 2008 to over 2.55 million tonnes, a rise of 11.4 percent on-year, the report said.

According to the report, aquaculture farms contributed 1.296 million tonnes, up 25 percent, while fishing vessels contributing 1.255 million tonnes, up 0.1 percent from the first seven months of 2007.

Fish constitutes 78 percent of Vietnam's aquatic output, as 1.986 million tonnes were produced, an increase of 14.1 percent from last year's output. Shrimp takes up about 9 percent, with 231,600 tonnes produced, up 1.5 percent from last year.

Despite the improvement in export sales, the report said Vietnam's fishing industry is facing difficulties from higher feed prices but lower export prices, with at least 75,000 tonnes of fish unable to sell. Soaring oil prices have also led to hundreds of fishing vessels halting trawling activities on costly petrol.