Vietnam’s revenue from seafood exports in July is estimated at 592 million USD, bringing the total figure in the first seven months of 2013 to 3.41 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 0.7 percent.

Accounting for 20.5 percent of the total turnover, the US remains Vietnamese seafood’s largest market. In the first half of this year, Vietnam exported over 609 million USD worth of seafood to the US, up 6 percent from the same period last year.

Exports to China, ASEAN members and Brazil also enjoyed significant increases of 27.7 percent, 11.8 percent and 76.5 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, a fall was seen in seafood exports to the EU (down 7.8 percent), Japan (down 1.3 percent) and the Republic of Korea (down 19.5 percent), attributable to the impacts of the economic recession as well as technical and tax barriers in Japan and the RoK.

Experts forecast rapid growth for the industry in the remaining months of 2013 since importers will make preparations for the Christmas and New Year season, and raw material supply for processors will rise.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, total seafood production in the seven months rose 2.5 percent from the same period last year to 3.3 million tonnes. Of which, Vietnam harvested 1.5 million tonnes, up 5.2 percent, and farmed 1.78 million tonnes, an increase of 0.4 percent.-VNA