Workers at Ben Tre Forestry and Aquaproduct Import-Export Company in the Cuu Long River Delta region process shrimp. The region expects to produce 54,000 tonnes of white-leg shrimp for exports. — VNA/VNS Photo Xuan Truong

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta provinces expect US$1.3 billion from exports of shrimp in the second half of 2014, bringing earnings to $2.6 billion for this year.

The Steering Board for the Southeast Region, said that to increase export targets, the provinces planned to produce 214,000 tonnes of prawn in the second half for processing export products and 430,000 tonnes of prawn for the whole year, which is 4.6 per cent higher than last year.

Meanwhile, the region expected to produce 54,000 tonnes of white-leg shrimp and 16,000 tonnes of blue-leg prawn for export processing in the second half.

Shrimp producers in the region have developed under modern and environmental-friendly modes, including GlobalGAP, VietGAP and safe breeding regions to meet the demand for quality at home and the export markets, the board said.

The board said that in the first half of this year, the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta harvested 285,000 tonnes of shrimp and earned $1.3 billion in export value.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first half of this year the total value of Viet Nam's seafood exports rose 24.2 per cent to $3.45 billion, of which 48 per cent came from shrimps. It was in demand in the United States, the European Union and Japan apart from South Korea and China.

The total export value of seafood this year is expected to reach $6.9 billion, which included $3.5 billion from shrimp exports, similar to that of 2013. — VNS