Hanoi (VNA) – Aquatic exports are likelyto increase 5 percent from last year to 7.4 billion USD in 2017, despite difficultiesin overseas markets and fiercer competition, the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers (VASEP) said.

It forecasts growth in shipments to the US, theEU and Japan – the three biggest markets. While the shipments of aquaticproducts to the US could expand 5 percent to 1.5 billion USD, those to the EUand Japan are likely to rise only 1 percent and 2 percent to some 1.2 billionUSD and 1.1 billion USD, respectively. 

At a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on January 19,VASEP Chairman Ngo Van Ich said although aquatic exports encountered problemsin the first three months of 2016, they started to rebound in the Q2 and grew forthe rest of the year, reaching more than 7.05 billion USD for 2016.

Revenue rose by 7.4 percent from the previousyear and contributed some 22 percent to total agro-forestry-fishery exports.

Vietnam shipped aquatic products to 161 marketsin 2016 with 3.13 billion USD worth of shrimp and 1.67 billion USD worth of trafish, both of which went up about 7 percent.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Vu Van Tam described last year’s aquatic exports as impressive asthe agricultural sector contracted in the first half of the year, and fewbelieved shrimp export volume would reach 652,000 tonnes since only 190,000tonnes were exported in the first six months of 2016.

He said facing an unfavourable situation, manyseafood processors and exporters shifted to environmentally friendlydevelopment models instead of racing to export as much as they could.

While the quality of aquatic products improvedlast year, marine pollution along the central coast in early 2016 affected theprestige of Vietnamese seafood. Some countries enhanced examinations offisheries products from Vietnam, said Nguyen Nhu Tiep – Director of theagriculture ministry’s National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality AssuranceDepartment.

VASEP Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe saidsaltwater intrusion, high production cost of raw materials, strong competitionand technical barriers in import markets will remain challenges for seafoodbusinesses.

Agreeing, Tam warned of an emerging challenge withsome countries protecting local production through technical barriers or foodsafety and quarantine regulations to hamper imports.

Businesses should keep updated on export marketsto avoid having their goods returned, he said.

At the meeting, enterprises also asked theGovernment for support policies to ensure the domestic supply of raw materials,improve farming-processing-export links, and reduce production costs.-VNA