Jakarta/Rome – Indonesia and FAO will strengthen cooperation in the field of marine affairs, fisheries and aquaculture under an agreement signed here today.

Experts from the US Department of Commerce are conducting a fact-finding tour of Vietnams major shrimp producers and processors to examine the local shrimp farming and processing industry.

Aquaculture producers in Southeast Asia are proving reluctant to find alternative feeds even as the price of fishmeal continues to soar, according to a veteran watcher of the sector.

(vasep.com.vn) Portugal is one of the 10 markets accounting for the largest proportion of tuna export value of Vietnam in April 2013.

Indonesia has welcomed a preliminary finding by US investigators that clears the domestic shrimp industry of dumping allegations.

The Asian Seafood Exposition returns to Hong Kong this year from September 3-5, 2013. Scheduled to take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, this event is expected to attract over 6,000 buyers from 50 countries and more than 150 exhibiting companies from 25 countries including China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Canada and the United States.

The GAA said the deadline for nominations has been pushed from May 31 to June 15. Innovations can span the full range of farm activities, including wetlands conservation, feed management, water-quality management, effluent reduction, energy reduction, staff training, community relations, animal welfare, and health and nutrition the GAA said.

Overall US seafood imports fell 4.1 percent in value in the first four months of 2013, to $5.1 million (€3.9 million), from $5.4 million (€4.1 million) for the same time period last year, according to newly-released information by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

(vasep.com.vn) In 2011, the total global farmed shrimp production reached 3.85 million tons, including 3 million tons of whiteleg shrimp (accounting for 78 percent of the total) and 850,000 tons of black tiger shrimp (22 percent).

Argentina exported 113,419 tonnes of fish and shellfish between January and April 2013, a figure that shows a rise of 3.4 per cent over the same period in 2012, when 109,630 tonnes were shipped abroad.

UK - Overfishing has reduced fish populations and biodiversity across much of the world's oceans. In response, fisheries are increasingly reliant on a handful of highly valuable shellfish. However, new research by the University of York shows this approach to be extremely risky.

China added 1,395 new boats to its offshore fishing fleet in the first quarter of 2013 according to ministry of agriculture data, and figures show offshore catching grew faster than aquaculture compared to 2012.

Slamet Soebjakto, Director General of Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, stated that the country will aim to boost its domestic shrimp production in 2013 by 30% over the previous year to 457,600 tons, according to the Indonesian newspaper Bisnis.

In April, Japanese fish and seafood imports -- including fishmeal and fish oil -- dived 9.3 percent year-on-year to 237,449 metric tons, according to the International Marine Foods Circulation Council.

The value of tilapia coming into the United States fell 10.8 percent overall from January to April 2013 compared to the same time last year, according to statistics released by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).