HCMC – A ceremony was held in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang on January 5 to export over 160 tons of frozen shrimp to the United States, the European Union and Japan, which is the country’s first batch of aquatic products to be shipped overseas this year.
The event was co-organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the provincial government and the Minh Phu Hau Giang Seafood JSC.
Addressing the ceremony, Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, asked local businesses to facilitate their cooperation to expand shrimp export markets.
A host of difficulties over the past year—the Covid-19 pandemic, severe drought and saltwater intrusion, destructive storms and flooding—left serious impacts on agricultural production.
Overcoming such obstacles, the country’s seafood production growth rate reached 3.05% against the 2019 figure and the seafood export revenue hit US$8.4 billion. The output of seafood products totaled 8.4 million tons, improving 1.8% year-on-year. The shrimp product output in particular was 900,000 tons.
He added that Vietnam has negotiated, signed and implemented 16 free trade agreements (FTAs), especially new-generation FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Despite the complicated developments of the coronavirus crisis, the shrimp sector has still brought high economic value to the country, with the shrimp export revenue this year expected to rise by 15% year-on-year to reach US$4.4 billion, Tien said.
