China topped Myanmar's marine product exporting countries annually in the past decade among over 40's, the local Voice weekly quoted the Marine Products Producers and Exporters Association as reporting Sunday.
 

In the fiscal year 2007-08, out of over 561 million U.S. dollars' marine product export to over 40 countries by Myanmar, that to China amounted to 148 million U.S. dollars, representing 26 percent of the total, the report said.
 

China enjoyed such status since 1997-98 replacing Singapore.
 

Official statistics showed that in 2007-08, Myanmar exported 352,652 tons of marine products, gaining 561 million dollars, up from 2006-07's 234 million dollars.
  

The fishery authorities have projected to raise the export earning to 850 million dollars in the present fiscal year of 2008-09.
 
 
Myanmar's fishery sector stood the fourth largest contributor to the gross domestic product and also the fourth largest source of foreign exchange earning in the past five years.
 

With a long coastline of over 2,800 km and a total area of 500,000 hectares of swamps along the coast, the country has an estimated sustainable yield of marine products at over one million tons a year.