Vietnam’s seafood farming and fishing industry is expecting toproduce 6.4 million tonnes in 2015, according to the Directorate ofFisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A conference on seafood production in the first six month was held onJune 29 in Hanoi by the directorate, revealing that in the first halfof the year, seafood production reached 3 million tonnes, up 3.6 percentagainst the same period last year.

Of the 3million tonnes, the farming sector contributed 1.8 million and theremaining was generated through fishing. Brackish-water shrimps posted a21 percent growth with 200,000 tonnes.

In orderto reach the expectations, the sector will need to face competitionfrom other countries, technical barriers, and disease risks, accordingto the Directorate.

Nguyen Van Trung, Head ofthe Department of Fisheries Capture and Resources Protection under theDirectorate, said the implementation of Decree No 67/2014/ND-CP onseafood development needs to be sped up to boost the output of seafoodfishing.

Government Decree No. 67 provides afull, systematic and synchronous set of basic policies to encouragefishermen to build high-capacity and iron-covered ships capable offishing offshore .

Nguyen Huy Dien, DeputyGeneral Director of the Directorate, said that the agency would organiseregional meetings to assign tasks and send working teams to localitiesto help farmers ensure high seafood quality.-VNA