Vietnam's seafood products were shipped to over 160 countries worldwidethis year, helping the country become one of the world's top 10 seafoodexporters, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development VuVan Tam.

However, the development of the seafood processing industry had not goneexactly according to plan, resulting in a number of practicaldifficulties such as an imbalance of supply and demand and an unstablemarket.

The industry needed to carry out research toassess the market and make predictions for the future in a move toensure sustainable development, he said.

The fishingindustry aimed to increase production by 8-10 percent per year and toexport 6.5-7 million tonnes of seafood worth 8-9 billion USD by 2020,following a development strategy approved recently by the PrimeMinister.

Under the plan, which would require an estimated57.4 trillion VND (2.9 billion USD), the industry would beindustrialised and developed to increase output, improve quality, andenhance its competitiveness.

Top priority would be givento developing the cultivation of freshwater fish, molluscs, sea fish,shrimp and crab sectors in the Hong (Red) River Delta and improving thetra fish and shrimp sectors in the East Sea and the country's southernregion so that the products were congruent with Global GAP standards.

Plants would also be built in central Vietnam to produce feed that would be sold domestically and throughout ASEAN.

Vietnam expects to earn 4.5 billion USD from seafood exports this year.The country earned 3.98 billion USD from seafood exports during thefirst 10 months of the year, up 14.46 percent compared to 2009./.