In April alone, the country earned $300 million in overseas sales.

The total seafood volume from January to April reached 1.19 million tonnes, an increase of 7.4 per cent on the same period last year.

Phuong said that seafood exportation in April was maintaining stable growth thanks to the devaluation of the US dollar, which stimulated seafood imports by many European countries.

Tra (catfish) had done particularly well with a yearly growth of 42 per cent, and product turnover accounted for 33 per cent of the country’s total seafood export value, he said.

In terms of import market structure, there was a remarkable decline in US demand despite the Japanese market’s recovery and the European market’s rapid growth, he said.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, the EU was the country’s greatest seafood importer at $280 million, making up 26 per cent of Vietnam’s total seafood export value in the past four months.

The figure represents a yearly increase of 21.5 per cent, and the market is expected to further boost frozen fillet imports.

Japan ranked second with seafood imports worth $179 million, accounting for 17.4 per cent, a year-on-year rise of 13.5 per cent.

The US was the third biggest importer, but both import volume and value declined 13 and 15.2 per cent in the first four months of the year, respectively. The country imported 15,800 tonnes of seafood worth $112.57 million.

Tran Van Pham, general director of Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (STAPIMEX) – one of the country’s leading shrimp exporters. said that since the middle of 2007, the US economy had been struggling and was at the brink of falling into recession, which negatively affected people’s purchasing power.

Thus, seafood, especially shrimp, which is considered a high-end product, had been badly affected, he said.

Over the past year, US dollar depreciation and dong shortages have led to difficulties for processors, exporters and shrimp breeders.

Another reason for the US decline in shrimp imports has been that shrimp production in Vietnam has not been raised, and shrimp quality remains inconsistent.

Shrimp breeders still face financial problems and must borrow money from banks with high interest rates at 1.5 per cent per month or worse and at 3 to 5 per cent per month for non-bank loans.

Recently, white-foot shrimp have been allowed in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Province, but producers have still struggled to find quality shrimp for breeding purposes. Some localities have had to import white-foot shrimp from China.

This type of shrimp is raised largely in the central region of the US and in Asia. Prices have been lower than for Vietnamese sugpo prawns, but the size of these shrimp has grown considerably.

To deal with these problems, Phuong said that the seafood sector would build a network of suppliers and closely monitor food quality and seafood health in each region.

The sector would also build a production plan and distribute breeds suitable for each region and season.

Vietnam would also focus on increasing product quality, intensifying trade promotion, and enhancing the capacity for market study in order to reach the targeted seafood export value of $4.52 billion by the end of the year.

(Source: VNS)