Vietnam’s fishing output in the first four months of 2018 increases by 2.7 percent. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s fishing output in thefirst four months of 2018 totalled nearly 1.08 million tonnes, an increase of2.7 percent from a year ago thanks to favourable weather conditions andincreased fish population.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, over 95.4 percent of the fish, or about 1.03 million tonnes, werecaught at sea, up 2.8 percent year on year while 49,000 tonnes were capturedfrom rivers.
However, the total tuna catches of the country’s largest tunafleets in Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa provinces declined in January –April. The three provinces brought ashore a total of over 7,420 tonnes of tuna,down 14 percent from the same period last year. Binh Dinh reported the highestdecrease of 18 percent to nearly 1,590 tonnes of tuna.
Meanwhile, the aquaculture output during the periodexceeded 1 million tonnes, up 6 percent from the same time last year.
The Mekong Delta region harvested some 373,000 tonnes oftra fish, a year-on-year surge of 8 percent.
With tra fish fetching high prices, local farmers have rushed to dig ponds andbreed more fish, leading to the scarcity of fish fry and increase in theirprices.
In a stark contrast, farmers have been rushing off their feet to harvest shrimpfor fear of price drop. Each kilogramme of white-leg shrimp is being sold at110,000-120,000 VND (4.84- 5.28 USD), decreasing 10,000-20,000 VND (0.44-0.88USD) per kg from the previous month.
The country earned some 2.4 billion USD from exporting aquatic products in thefirst four months of 2018, representing a year-on-year rise of 13 percent.
In April alone, the country raked in 650 million USD from the export of aquaticproducts.
The US, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea were the biggest importers inJanuary-March, making up 52 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s totalaquatic product exports. The highest growth was reported in the Netherlands(55.7 percent), China (44.6 percent) and the UK (33.8 percent).
In the four-month period, Vietnam imported 536 million USD worth of aquaticproducts, up 27.4 percent against the same period last year. Of the figure, 130million worth of aquatic products were imported in April.
Aquatic product exports in 2018 are expected to exceed 8.5 billion USD, upabout 3 percent compared to 2017, though Vietnam's exports to the US and EUmarkets will continue to be affected by catfish inspection, anti-dumping andillegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), according to the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers.-VNA
VNA
