This was the second time that Asian Pacific Chapter of World Aquaculture Society (WAS-APC) held the Asia-Pacific Aquaculture Conference in the Southeastern Asia, and it was the first conference in Viet Nam.
This meaningful event offered opportunities for the international aquaculture community to see the rapidly expanding fishery industry of Viet Nam (nearly 50 per cent increase in the last five years in farming area and over 100 per cent in production volume for the last 16 years). The conference this year aimed to deliver a strong message that the world aquaculture needed a strategic approach towards sustainable development in the future.
In his welcome speech, Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development highlighted that, since 2010, among the world key fish producing countries, there have been eight in the Asia-Pacific region. Viet Nam ranked third in Asia-Pacific and was in the top ten seafood exporters of the world. These recent years, the fishery industry has been considered as the key business sector in Viet Nam .
“This conference with key issues on diseases, environment protection, feed, farming technologies, industry restructuring is a place for Viet Nam to share and learn experiences from other countries in the region and beyond,” Mr Phat added.
There were 1,800 participants to the seminars of APA2013 and more than 170 Vietnamese and foreign companies displaying at the trade show. Attendees heard 50 reports and presentations by scientists and experts from governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations in research, training and trading fields from over 70 countries and territories in the world.
The conference was co-organized by MARD and WAS-APC in cooperation with Research Institute of Agriculture No.2 (RIAII), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), and Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). Uni-President and Biomin were two major sponsors of the conference.
The Asia-Pacific region is the largest fish and aquatic species aquaculture center in the world, according to reports presented in APA-2013.
In 2010, Asia-Pacific farmed fish and aquatic species reached 53.1 million MT, making up of 89 per cent of global aquaculture in terms of volume and 80 per cent in terms of value.
In Viet Nam, aquatic farming was 3.27 million MT in 2012, representing 55.2 per cent of annual fishery production, up 7.2 per cent against that of 2011 and 287.4 per cent against that of 10 years ago, when shrimp output was 488,000 MT and pangasius 1.2 million MT.
Viet Nam has ranked the third among fishery producers and has been in the top ten seafood exporters in the world.
So far, per capita seafood consumption in Asia-Pacific is around 29 kilogram per year, equal to a total volume of 116 million MT per year. By 2020, demands from the region is expected to increase to 16 – 20 million MT annually. The figure will reach 25 million MT by 2030. The main trend is to boost farming activities, rather than wild-fish catches, to serve rising demand. Therefore, the aquaculture sector will be the priority of Asia-Pacific countries in the future.
