HANOI, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained nearly 55.2 million U.S. dollars from exporting tra fish or shark catfish, a common kind of catfish, to other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the first quarter of this year, witnessing a year-on-year increase of 18 percent.

Specifically, the export turnovers of Vietnamese tra fish shipped to Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand surged by 70.9 percent, 40.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, according to the Vietnam Tra Fish Association on Tuesday.

Vietnam has set a target of reaping some 2.4 billion U.S. dollars from exporting tra fish this year, up from nearly 2.3 billion U.S. dollars last year.

The country gained 549.4 million U.S. dollars from exporting tra fish to the United States in 2018, up 59.5 percent against 2017, and 243.9 million U.S. dollars from shipping the fish to the European Union, up 20.2 percent.

Vietnam's Mekong Delta is striving to regulate tra fish output and improving quality of the fish, partly by preventing unauthorized aquaculture and strictly monitoring the use of chemicals like antibiotics in farming, the association said.