Vietnamese authority has confirmed that 2008 has been a difficult year for the domestic fisheries sector with ten storms and four tropical depressions on the Eastern Sea, high prices of fuel, materials and equipment for aquaculture, fish catching and fierce market competition. It is told that the fishing sector has managed to maintain a high growth. Most notably, seafood exports hit an all-time high in 2008.
It is observed that in 2008, Vietnam’s total seafood volume is estimated at 4.58 million tonnes, the highest ever figure. This includes 2.45 million tonnes from aquaculture, up 15.3% against 2007 and 2.13 million tonnes from catching. Especially, the sector bagged home US$4.5 million from exports, up US$700 million or 19.6% against last year. Vietnam’s seafood products have been exported to over 150 countries and territories including many new markets in Africa and the Middle East.
Among these seafood products shrimp is the top export product. It is said that Vietnam exported over 176,000 tonnes of shrimps in the first eleven months of the year, earning US$1.5 billion, up 20.4 percent in quantity and 9 percent in export turnover compared to the same period last year. The stable growth of the domestic seafood sector in 2008 has greatly contributed to the general development of the agricultural-fisheries and forestry sector as well as the national socio-economic stability.
It is fact that this year the seafood sector has made outstanding achievements, creating premises for the development of the sector in the following years. Changes in prices, consumption markets and the global financial crisis have had strong impacts on the Vietnamese economy this year. Besides, the seafood industry has registered record output this year.
