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Last year Primorye’s aquaculture industry supplied more than 1,000 tons of domestically-grown seafood to the local market with the tendency for further growth expected to continue this year, officials said.

Primorye’s fishery department recently reported that local enterprises engaged in the aquaculture business have started spring operations for growing delicious seafood. The enterprises are currently installing equipment for planting and collecting activities in the marine gardens, a press statement from the regional administration said on Thursday.

The regional administration encourages development of the aquaculture in Primorye and offers financing and benefits for the enterprises, the statement said. Last year three aquaculture ventures were able to receive loans on favorable terms with the support of the administration.

Experts say that the marine gardens’ territory can be increased from the current 30 hectares to 50 hectares in the near future and the effectiveness of this industry will improve. It will be possible to harvest about 750,000 tons of produce.

Last year, the results were visible but still modest – a little more than 1,000 tons of aquaculture products were supplied to the local markets. Scallops grown in Primorye accounted to 600 tons, seaweed to 345 tons, mussels made 90 tons and oysters 0.05 tons, the statement revealed.

The tendency to develop local aquaculture production will be continued in 2008 since the industry not only supplies domestically-grown produce to local markets but also creates more working opportunities for the residents.