According to Mr Tran Dinh Luan, deputy head of the agency, the aquaculture industry will keep shrimp farming area at 620,000 hectares with a production of 330,000 tons of shrimps this year in order to achieve this goal.
In 2019, the industry aims to raise yield and export value of whiteleg shrimps. An area of about 105,000 hectares has been set aside for whiteleg shrimp farming with expected yield of 530,000 tons. This is the base for the industry to aim for a target of $4.5 billion in shrimp exports by 2020.
The agency also said that provinces in the Mekong Delta and south central coast had implemented seasonal crop calendar for brackish water shrimps in January this year. In order to have a source of healthy baby shrimps, the ministry will try their best to control the quality of imported male and female shrimps for mating. In addition, it will control antibiotic use in shrimp farming to prevent the issue of antibiotic residues to ensure the quality of shrimps for export.
Mr Nguyen Quoc Toan, head of the Department of Processing and Trade for Agro-forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, said that when EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement takes effect this year, about 90 percent of tariffs imposed on seafood products exported to the EU will be cut to zero percent within three to four years in accordance with the agreement. Demand from some markets, including South Korea and countries in the ASEAN is expected to strongly increase in the near future.
