Mekong Delta expands seafood, rice export markets

(VOV) - The Mekong Delta region earned US$850 million from seafood and rice exports in January, equal to 8.3% of this year’s plan and accounting for 75.2% of the region’s total export revenues.

It aims to fetch around US$10.2 billion from exports of the two products this year.

To fulfill the plan, the region will use 800,000ha water surface for aquaculture, aiming to yield around 3.7 million tonnes to meet material demand of 198 local processing plants. Meanwhile, 4.2 million ha will be put under rice cultivation, 80% of which will be under high-quality rice.

The quality of trade promotion activities will be improved. Local authorities will help businesses conduct surveys and advertise their products in Asian, African, Oceania, European and North American markets.

Businesses will also be updated with global experience in risk management during the import-export process and in applying special financial solutions.

They will also be provided with VND56,000 billion loans to invest in technological renovation, expansion of production scale and restructuring of the processing industry to have more competitive products for export.

These measures will help the Mekong Delta increase the quantity of high-graded rice for export by 20% and seafood by 5% this year against last year.

In 2014, the region boosted trade promotion activities in many Asian, European and North American countries, and improved the production of high-graded rice for export to demanding markets like Japan, the EU, the US, Singapore and Australia. Exports of the two products hit US$8.9 billion, up nearly US$700 million compared to 2013.

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