October 28, 2003

Vietnam Total Seafood Export Value $1.85 Billion in Jan-Oct

Vietnam posted an estimated $230 million from seafood exports in October, bringing the total seafood export value to around $1.85 billion in the last ten months of this year, an increase of 11% compared to 2002.

No details of seafood export volume were disclosed, but frozen shrimps, frozen fish, cuttlefish, octopus, dried cuttlefish and molluscs were the major products during the period.

Local seafood exporters continued shipping seafood products to the traditional markets and also extended shipments to Germany and South Korea, their newly sourced markets. Major importers of Vietnamese seafood are the US, Japan, China, Hong Kong, the EU and South Korea.

The results were attributed to remarkable increases in total output of up to 2.18 million tons during the period, of which 1.27 million tons were caught, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%, while aquatic output was up 15% on-year to 913,170 tons. Vietnam has 332 seafood processors.

They are striving to obtain $450 million seafood exports in the remaining two months to meet targets of $2.3 billion this year, the Fisheries Ministry said.