HANOI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reaped 4.7 billion U.S. dollars from exporting seafood in the first seven months of this year, posting a year-on-year increase of 8.1 percent, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said on Tuesday.

The country is expected to make seafood export turnovers of 8.5 billion to 9 billion U.S. dollars this year, up from more than 8.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, the association said, noting that of the turnovers in 2017, nearly 1.3 billion U.S. dollars came from the Chinese market.

Last year, Vietnam earned over 3.8 billion U.S. dollars from exporting prawns and shrimps, up 21.5 percent; nearly 1.8 billion U.S. dollars from tra fish, up 3.9 percent; 721 million U.S. dollars from mollusks such as cuttlefish and octopus, up 17 percent; 593 million U.S. dollars from tuna, up 16.4 percent; 117 million U.S. dollars from crabs, down 5.9 percent; and 1.3 billion U.S. dollars from other kinds of fish, up 17 percent.

Vietnam had a total seafood output of more than 7.2 million tons in 2017, including roughly 3.4 million tons coming from catching, and over 3.8 million tons from aquaculture, according to the country's agriculture ministry.