HANOI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese government has accused Australia of "causing serious damage" to its prawn farmers and exporters as well as asked the Australian government to reconsider the ban on uncooked prawn imports.

According to Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, the ban had damaged his country's aquaculture industry, reported local Vietnam News online newspaper on Friday.

"In our view, the ban is not in line with common practices and the spirit of nurturing and enhancing the existing good trade relationship between Vietnam and Australia," Khanh said.

The official added that a number of Vietnamese exporters specializing in the Australian market are facing the risk of going bankrupt due to the suspension.

Australian authorities are still investigating how white spot disease spreads to Australia, while prawn farmers have blamed it on Asian imports.

Khanh suggested Vietnam should be allowed to keep exporting raw prawns to Australia until there is proof that imported prawns were the source of the outbreak.

"If Australia continues to maintain the ban, Vietnam requests that it provides adequate scientific evidence as soon as possible showing a causal relationship between prawn imports from Vietnam and the outbreak of white spot disease in Australia," Khanh added.

Earlier, Vietnam and Australia have had disagreements over bilateral agricultural trade. In 2015, Vietnam temporarily banned the importation of fruits from Australia following a disagreement over Mediterranean fruit fly.