HCM CITY: The country’s seafood exports are expected to reach US$7 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 5.5 per cent, according to the Việt Nam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (Vasep). Trương Đình Hòe, Vasep’s general secretary, said: “Seafood export revenues this year will surely reach $7 billion or may be a little more than that.
“In the early months of the year the seafood sector faced difficulties and challenges. Then a balance in supply and demand in the world market helped the prices of some seafood products recover.” Thanks to that, exports of certain items like shrimp and tra fish have increased this year, though the growth was not high, he said.
The country earned $5.7 billion from exports in the first 10 months of the year and shipments are expected to increase significantly in the remaining months of the year because demand in the main import markets usually goes up during the year-end festive season, he said. “We have high expectations for seafood exports in the two remaining months of the year. This will be an encouragement for seafood exporters amid market difficulties as well as a slow recovery in key export markets. This will be a foundation for us to prepare better for 2017.”
