Processing shrimp for export (Photo: VNA)Soc Trang (VNA) - Vietnam’s brackish-watershrimp industry is confident of achieving its export target of more than 3.5billion USD this year despite the host of difficulties posed by the COVID-19pandemic, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said.
The Ministry held a meeting in Soc Trang provinceon May 8 to launch development tasks for the sector in 2020, attended byofficials from eight coastal provinces in the Mekong Delta - the largestagricultural hub in Vietnam - and a number of business associations.
Minister Cuong pointed out that the brackish-watershrimp industry has faced numerous challenges this year as the COVID-19pandemic has not only threatened people’s health and lives around the world butalso seriously affected global supply chains, including in Vietnam. Drought,saltwater intrusion, and shrimp disease count among other problems facing shrimpfarmers.
He highlighted, however, certain opportunitiesfor the industry, noting that the National Assembly is set to ratify theEU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) soon, under which tariffs onagricultural products, including shrimp, will be reduced sharply.
Other participants at the meeting said that Stateagencies, the agriculture ministry, and localities with large aquaculture areasneed to take drastic action to cope with saltwater intrusion and shrimp disease,strictly deal with production facilities that violate quality regulations, andapply advanced farming technologies and sustainably production models.
It is also necessary to explore new exportmarkets given the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak, they said.
The industry plans to farm shrimp on 730,000 haof brackish water this year, harvest 830,000 tonnes, and earn 3.5 billion USDfrom exports, up 2-3 percent against 2019.
As of the end of April, the shrimp farming areain coastal localities was just over 480,000 ha, down some 15 percent against lastApril and equal to 71 percent of the annual plan. Output was estimated at morethan 168,000 tonnes.
Shrimp exports approximated 600 million USD inthe first quarter./.
VNA
