Japan, one of the world’s largest seafood consumption countries, hold out good opportunities for Vietnamese seafood, according to experts.

Statistics show a Japanese consumes an average 70.6kg of seafood each year compared to the world average of 15.9 kg/person per year.

In 2009, Vietnam exported seafood worth nearly 760 million USD to Japan , ranking eighth among exporters to the market, of which, frozen shrimp earned 500 million USD.

In the first five months of 2010, Vietnam earned more than 290.8 million USD from seafood export to Japan , a year-on-year increase of 19 percent, making Japan Vietnam’s leading seafood importer both in value and volume.

According to Vo Thanh Ha, expert of Asia-Pacific Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Japanese consumers are particularly concerned about food hygiene and processing technology. As a result, the country has set up strict technical barriers, which hinders the growth of Vietnam ’s seafood exports to Japan .

To get a bigger share of the Japanese market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked seafood enterprises to diversify their export products, keep a strict eye on production and processing steps as well as product quality and boost trade promotion activities.

Japanese seafood businesses are boosting overseas investment and technology transfer for re-export to Japan , Ha said, adding that this would provide a good chance for Vietnamese enterprises in technology innovation./.