Aquatic breeding is becoming one of the major production sector which will contribute to the restructuring in agriculture and poverty reduction, according to the Directorate of Fisheries.

At a meeting to review the performance of fisheries sector in 2010 in Hanoi on Dec. 24, the directorate’s Deputy General Director Pham Anh Tuan, said aquatic breeding is widely developing in many localities towards large-scale farms.

Breeding of seafood species which bring in high export values, including shrimp, basa and tra fish has been encouraged with large investment.

In the 2006-2010 period, aquatic breeding area and output posted average increases of 3.7 percent and 27 percent per year, respectively.

In 2010, the nation’s aquatic breeding area is estimated at 1.1 million ha and output, nearly 2.8 million tonnes.

Besides, the country also netted 2.4 million tonnes of seafood in 2010.

Vietnam has also actively cooperated with foreign countries in this field, Tuan said.

This year, the country took part in several seafood forums organised by FAO, implemented the issuance of certificates of seafood exported to EU market and coordinated with the WWF to remove tra fish from the red list in some European countries.

The country also worked with China to manage vessels’ activities following the Vietnam-China agreement on Fishery Cooperation in Tonkin Gulf and implemented an MOU on fishery cooperation with Myanmar./.