Viet Nam's seafood exports in 2013 were estimated to hit US$6.8 billion, up 11 per cent year-on-year, including US$617 million of seafood sales in December.
The US is the largest importer of Vietnamese seafood, making up 23.8 per cent of the country’s total seafood export turnover. Exports to China, Canada and Thailand reported strongly year-on-year growth.
Fish catching in 2013 has been confronted with hardship due to unfavorable weather, low fish prices and hiking fuel costs. Fish landings were up 3.9 per cent year-on-year to touch 2,725 thousand MT, including 2,526 thousand of marine fish.
High fish landings were reported in some provinces such as Binh Thuan (186.3 thousand MT), Kien Giang (437.4 thousand MT), Quang Ngai (140 thousand MT).
The number of vessels that have been registered were 116,000, making up 99 per cent of the country’s total fishing vessels (117 thousand MT).
Now the country has about 3,700 fishing groups with the participation of 22,000 vessels and 140,000 fishermen. Besides, in 2013, the country established over 50 fishing unions with high capacity as a pilot.
However, fishermen are facing some difficulties such as lack of investments in infrastructures for fishing and hiking input costs (fuel, materials).
Tuna production in 2013 is on the wane on par with last year due to high costs for offshore fishing, while there was also a sharp fall in the selling price of fish in international markets.
Aquaculture production this year gained 3,213 thousand MT, including 977 thousand MT of pangasius output. Pangasius farmers faced difficulties due to hiking production costs and low selling price of fish.
In 2013, the shrimp sector enjoyed a good performance. Farmers earned high profits thanks to bumper harvest and high shrimp price. Shrimp farming area in Mekong Delta reached 654,000 hectares, fetching the production of 541,000 MT, up 11 per cent over 2012.
