Seafood exports predicted to reach US$6.5- 6.7 billion by 2015

Vietnam is looking to achieve total seafood export revenue of US$6.5-6.7 billion by 2015, up US$2 billion from this year, with shrimp and tra fish being key contributors. This revenue represents a growth rate of 8-10% a year, Tran Thi Dung of the Institute of Seafood Economics and Planning, said at a seminar in HCMC on Tuesday, adding Europe, Japan and the United States would be key markets, accounting for 60-65% of the seafood industry’s export revenue. To attain an annual export revenue rise of US$400 million, the industry must find ways to enter new markets such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Asia, especially China, Dung said. Statistics of the institute show that in the next five years China will have an extra 300 million people living in urban areas, so Chinese demand for seafood will be great. Luong Le Phuong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, said at the seminar that the fishery industry had yet to be an economic spearhead because its contribution to GDP was insignificant, at less than 12%. “If we have better policies, farmers will develop tiger shrimp and tra fish farming and the fish farming industry will become a key economic driver of many provinces in the Mekong Delta,” Phuong said.