Vietnam will reach 7.9 billion USD in the value of seafood exports for 2014 due to high growth in key products.

GeneralSecretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers(VASEP) Nguyen Hoai Nam said the world market had seen a recovery, andsales of seafood products have risen more than other types of food.Meanwhile, Vietnam maintained stable and high quality seafood supplies,as the nation was estimated to gain a year-on-year increase of 18percent in seafood export values for this year, rising to 7.9 billionUSD, reported ufabetindo777.site.

Also, Deputy Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam said the nation could reachits target of 8 billion USD in total seafood export value for next yeardue to the continuing high growth in value this year.

The valueof shrimp exports in 2014 was expected to reach 22 percentyear-on-year, surging to 3.8 billion USD, while the value of tra fishexports would be 1.8 billion USD, he said.

Of note, Nam saidtilapia could become a key export seafood product in the near future.Many seafood experts agreed with this opinion because, with thepotential in fresh water and existing technological infrastructures ofthe fisheries industry, Vietnam had the ability to greatly increase theoutput of tilapia for export processing.

Pham Anh Tuan, DeputyHead of Fisheries Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said tilapia had great appeal in foreign markets.

Over the past five years, tilapia has reached an average growth rate at 30 percent each year in the world market.

Forinstance, the US market imported tilapia worth 200 million USD 10 yearsago, while this year the import value of tilapia to the US is expectedto reach 1 billion USD. Meanwhile, the export price of tilapia at themarket is high, at 4.5 USD per kilo.

Also, China annually exports 1.1-1.5 million tonnes of tilapia.

Thus tilapia, said Nam, would be a potential export seafood product for Vietnam in the future.

Tuanadded that the fisheries industry would promote the production oftilapia. Also, systems for raising tilapia along with shrimp wouldimprove the environment, control disease and produce quality seafoodproducts, officials noted.

Nguyen Huu Dung, VASEP deputychairman, said many enterprises now raising tra fish and shrimp hadplanned investments for rearing tilapia.

Vietnam produced 80percent of the local demand of tilapia breeding and the ministry built acentre for hatching tilapias in Quang Nam province to provide live fishfor the northern provinces. In the future, the ministry would have aplan on sustainable development of tilapia to assure high growth intilapia exports, he said.-VNA