Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved the Fisheries Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, aiming to make the country one of the world's top producers and exporters of seafood products.
Under the strategy, the country’s export value is expected to rise to between USD 14 billion and USD 16 billion (EUR 11.7 billion and EUR 13.4 billion) by 2030, according to the General Department of Fisheries.
Vietnam's total seafood production is expected to reach 9.8 million metric tons (MT) by 2030, including 7 million MT from aquaculture and 2.8 million MT from fishing.
The seafood industry will provide employment for roughly 3.5 million people by 2030, down from 3.9 million currently, as the country moves to a more modern and sustainable seafood industry by applying advanced technologies and management processes, the strategy said.
Vietnam aspires to become one of the three biggest seafood producing and exporting countries in the world by 2045, and aims to supplant India as the world’s largest shrimp exporter.
To achieve the targets, the country will preserve and develop its aquatic resources while gradually reducing the size of its fishing fleet. Aquaculture will become the key area that Vietnam will focus on in the next decade. Along with aquaculture, the strategy also aims to make the country a global hub for seafood processing.
The United States, the European Union, China, and Japan will continue to be the most important markets for seafood products from Vietnam, while South Korea and countries in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia are considered markets with high growth potential.
Vietnam produced 8.4 million metric tons (MT) of seafood last year, up 3 percent from 2019, comprised of 4.6 million MT of farmed products and 3.8 million MT of wild-caught seafood.
The country exported seafood worth USD 8.41 billion (EUR 7.05 billion) in 2020, down 1.5 percent from 2019. Of the total, exports of farmed shrimp and pangasius from Vietnam were worth USD 5.2 billion (EUR 4.4 billion), accounting for 61.8 percent of the country’s total export value. Sales of wild-caught seafood reached USD 3.2 billion (EUR 2.7 billion) in 2020, representing more than 38 percent of the total.
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