According to Ministry of Fisheries, this year has seen a considerably high growth in tra and basa fish exports over all markets, confirming the key role of tra and basa fish among Vietnamese seafood exports.

As announced by Ministry of Fisheries, tra and basa output has gained the highest growth this year with estimated export volume of 210,000 tonnes, worth US$560.
 
More remarkably, export turnover of tra and basa fish increased in most of the markets, particularly EU and Eastern Europe region. IN 2006, Vietnam has exported 54,9 million worth of tra and basa fish to Russia, an increase of 2.751% over 2005 and 45 million USD worth of this product to Poland, at 858% over last year. This showed that EU and Eastern Europe region is a very promising market for Vietnamese tra and basa fish exports.

Consequently, tra and basa fish materials market also saw significant growth. Material white tra fish price in Mekong Delta increased sharply to stand at 13.800-14.500 VND per kilogram, and 12.500-13.000 VND per kilogram for yellow one. This has encouraged farmers to extend their farming to cultivate tra fish.
 
The shrimp lawsuit initiated by US early this year and fluctuation on Japan market later has made no considerable effect on Vietnamese seafood export. By taking advantage of traditional markets and seeking new markets, Vietnamese seafood export to Japan, US and EU has increased by 30%, 23%, 16% respectively.

Currently, Japan is still the leading market for Vietnamese seafood exporters, accounting for 25% of exports share, following is EU (25%) and US just recently dropped to third position with around 20% export share. Korea is also the big consumer of Vietnam seafood exports with 6.2% market share, following is ASEAN countries, China, Russia and other markets.

Statistics figure from General Statistics Office showed that despite competitive pressure and new established trade barriers, export turnover of seafood products has reach 3.36billion USD, 0.5 billion higher than prediction.
 
According to Vice Minister of Fisheries Nguy?n Th? H?ng Minh, this success is thanks to the activeness of Vietnamese enterprises in grasping opportunities and renovating the processing technology. Exports turnover of seafood products have continually increased in recent years and ranked 4 among 9 groups of over 1-billions USD export products.

“The targeted turnover of 4-4,5 billion USD in 2010 is absolutely within our reach” said Ms Nguy?n Th? H?ng Minh.