HCM City (VNA) - The Vietnam FisheriesInternational Exhibition (Vietfish) 2018 will be held at the Saigon Exhibitionand Convention Centre from August 22-24, the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers (VASEP) has announced.

Vietfish 2018 will be the largest sincethe event was launched 20 years ago. It will feature 374 stalls, an increase of3.6 percent compared to last year, with firms from 14 countries andterritories, 66 percent will be Vietnamese.

On display will be aquaculture andservices, machinery, chemicals, additives and cold storage equipment.

Last year’s expo, themed “Asia’s Home ofSeafood", featured over 350 booths showcasing seafood products andmachinery and equipment for aquaculture by over 200 exhibitors from Vietnam andforeign countries, such as Japan, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,Germany, and Denmark.

A series of activities alsotook place on the sidelines of the exhibition, including a cooking show,launches of new products and an aquaculture seminar.

Vietnam gained itshighest ever seafood export value of 8.32 billion USD in 2017, a year-on-yearincrease of 18 percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment.

The US, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea were the topfour export markets for Vietnamese seafood products, accounting for 55.3percent of the total national export value.

Vietnam’s export markets with strong growth inseafood export value included China (up 64.4 percent), the Netherlands (up 48.6percent), the UK (up 36.4 percent), the Republic of Korea (up 29.1 percent),Canada (up 22.3 percent) and Japan (up 20 percent).

The country’s export ofaquatic products maintained a two-digit growth in the first half of 2018 andwas forecast to continue growing strongly in the rest of the year despiteplunging shrimp prices across the world. 

Seafood exports reached a value of nearly 4 billion USDduring the reviewed period, up 12.3 percent year-on-year, according to the VASEP.-VNA