Given Vietnam’s long coastline, capture fisheries
have always been important as a source of food
and incomes. With slower growth of capture fisheries,
aquaculture has overtaken capture fisheries in
both the quantity and value of production (Figure
3). In 2008, aquaculture production was valued at 33 trillion VNĐ, accounting for 6.6 percent of the
national GDP, up from 2.2 percent a decade ago.
Over the same period, capture fisheries’ share of
GDP fell from 5.0 percent to 3.6 percent (Trong
2008). The rapid growth of the sector has been
a major source of agricultural diversification over
the past decade. It is a direct result of adapting
operating practices together with a focus on the
production of exportable species at increased levels
of intensification. The EACC sector study on