Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has urged the fisheries sector to build a brand with food safety and high quality for seafood products.

To that end sector, the sector should increase the quality of products, maintain traditional markets and develop new export markets, while also paying attention to the domestic market, he said.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the 60th traditional day of the sector in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh on Sunday, Dung affirmed that its development goals are to step up industrialisation and modernisation and achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.

Achieving these goals will help it become a major commodity sector, gradually raise income of farmers and fishermen, protect the ecosystem and contribute to defence and security.

He also asked the sector to encourage fishermen to obey Vietnamese law as well as international regulations on fishing and aquaculture.

At the same time, fisheries development must be associated with innovation and production relations and focus on co-operation between raw material production, processing and consumption.

The sector should enhance the role of associations in fisheries production, strengthen the role of State management and promote scientific and technical applications and international co-operation.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the volume of Viet Nam’s aquatic products exceeded 7.4 million tonnes in 2018, a 5.6-fold increase compared with 1995.

Vietnamese seafood has been sold to more than 170 markets, with total export turnover surpassing US$9 billion last year, making the country one of the world’s largest aquatic product exporters.

On this occasion, the Directorate of Fisheries was presented with the Labour Order, first class. — VNS