August 4, 2006

 

Vietnamese seafood exports to South Korea up 30 percent

 

 

Vietnam's aquaculture exports to South Korea rose 30 percent to US$90 million over the first seven months of the year compared to the same period last year. 

 

South Korea, the 4th largest aquaculture export market for Vietnam, mainly imports frozen shrimp and cuttlefish.

 

The country's National Fisheries Products Quality Inspection Service (NFPIS) recently licensed 9 more Vietnamese aquaculture-processing companies, bringing to 285 the number of Vietnamese enterprises exporting aquaculture products to the market.

 

The two nations' fisheries ministries had met on aquaculture trade exhibitions and had been working on facilitating trade.

 

Head of Vietnam's International Co-operation Department under the Ministry of Fisheries, Dr Vu Van Trieu, said that ministerial co-operation has created favourable conditions for Vietnamese aquaculture exporting enterprises.

 

More trade promotions are needed to bring Vietnamese aquatic trademarks to South Korea to gain greater market share, he said.

 

Total aquaculture export revenue for this year is expected to reach US$2.8 billion.

 

In related news, the Ministry of Fisheries said the fisheries sector would need more than US$50 million to carry out a programme strengthening conservation of marine biodiversity for the next 10 years.

 

The director of the Seafood Research Institute, Do Van Khuong, said the programme would focus on the study and conservation of marine resources and efforts to preserve natural biodiversity in the country¡¯s marine environment.

 

Khuong said his institute would take part in proposing a legal reform and increasing professional knowledge and resources to conserve marine biodiversity.

 

Based on criteria of the World Conservation Union, experts have initially chosen three types of marine conservation, including a national marine garden, bio-conservation and protection areas, and marine natural resource protection areas.

 

Institute statistics show that international organisations provided funds totalling US$177 million for biodiversity conservation projects in Vietnam during 1995-2005.