USSEC’s aquaculture work in Myanmar is currently featured in a SeafoodSource.com story.  The article, titled “A Host of Seafood Potential in Myanmar,” describes the huge industry potential for the country, which only in recent years has developed an open-door external trade policy.
According to USSEC Myanmar Local Aquaculture Coordinator May Myat Noe Lwin, known as Noe Noe, during its long period of isolation from the rest of the world, Myanmar concentrated on production for domestic consumption.  Although the country’s trade and export sector has a lot of catching up to do, it also has an opportunity to learn from other countries’ mistakes and learn aquaculture basics from the beginning.  “We need to ensure that we get it all right, from production methods, through quality and quantity, to food safety and sustainable certification,” she stated.  Noe Noe also says that work will need to be done to improve Myanmar’s infrastructure and to highlight the importance of aquaculture to the government.
USSEC Southeast Asia Technical Director – Aquaculture Lukas Manomaitis explained USSEC’s involvement in the country:  “We started looking at Myanmar in 2011 for two reasons.  The first is a real possibility for U.S. soy sales now that the country is opening up to trade, and the second and more important to our aquaculture program, is that Myanmar is a very large producer of aquaculture products.  However, these are not necessarily produced as efficiently as they could be, nor are they the best species to develop an export business with, and we want to help with this,” he said.  Mr. Manomaitis added that he feels Myanmar has a good chance of gaining market share if aquaculture production is managed well.
SeafoodSource.com is an online global communications resource for seafood news and information.  It markets itself as “the leading free international seafood industry resource, providing news, market reports, market analysis and commentary.”
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