HANOI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained nearly 3.2 billion U.S. dollars from exporting seafood, mainly prawns and catfish in the first five months of this year, seeing a year-on-year decline of 1 percent, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Wednesday.

In May alone, the country's seafood exports raked in 750 million U.S. dollars, down 1.4 percent against May 2018. Its largest markets included Japan, the United States, China and South Korea.

Vietnam is striving to make seafood export turnovers of 10 billion U.S. dollars this year, compared with 8.8 billion U.S. dollars last year. Meanwhile, it is raising aquaculture output by 3.6 percent to over 4.3 million tons, and improving seafood quality by further applying modern technologies, the ministry said.

Between January and May, Vietnam made a total seafood output of over 3 million tons, up 6.2 percent on-year, said the ministry. Specifically, it gained an aquaculture output of roughly 1.5 million tons, up 7 percent, and a capture output of over 1.5 million tons, up 5.4 percent.