Agro-forestry-fishery exports top nearly US$24 billion in 8 months

  longhaiplaza.com

  11/09/2017

The country generated US$23.66 billion from agricultural, forestry and fishery exports in the first eight months of this year, surging 13.5% against same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

In August alone, total export value reached US$3.1 billion, MARD said.

During eight-month period, oversea shipments of main farming products earned US$12.6 billion, up 17.2% per cent.

Of them, rubber export saw the strongest increase in both volume and value. Up to 795,000 tonnes of rubber were shipped abroad for a revenue of US$1.36 billion, representing yearly rises 11.2% in volume and 52% in value.

Rice export, meanwhile, posted its positive growth in the period with 19.8% increase in volume and 17.5% in value year-on-year at 3.96 million tonnes and US$1.75 billion.

Fruit and vegetable continued to show strong export growth, with a 46.5% year-on-year increase in value to US$2.32 billion in eight months.

However, some other products such as coffee and cashew saw a decrease in export volume over the same period in 2016 despite the increase in value.

In particular, coffee exports in the first eight months reached 1.02 million tonnes, bringing home US$2.33 billion, down 19.9% ​​in volume, but up 3% value compared to last year’s corresponding period.

Cashew exports decreased 1.1% in volume but rose 24.9% in value over the same period in 2016.

According to MARD, seafood products reached US$5.13 billion in eight-month exports, jumping 18.1% over the same period in 2016.

The largest buyers of Vietnamese seafood included the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea, accounting for 55.6% of total exports.

Export value to China showed the biggest increase of 57.2%, followed by Japan (30.8%), the United Kingdom (30.1%), the Republic of Korea (28.8%), the Netherlands (25.3%) and Canada (20.7%).

In addition, wood and wooden goods earned the country US$4.84 billion from January to August, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%.

The import value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in August hit US$2.69 billion, bringing the total import value of the whole industry in the first eight months up to US$19.17 billion, up 22.8% over the same period last year.

In eight-month period, the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector saw a trade surplus of US$4.5 billion.

The agricultural sector has set a target of earning US$34 – US$35 billion from agro-forestry-fishery exports in 2018, according to MARD.

Of the total, export of farm produce is expected to hit at least US$16 billion. The overseas shipments of seafood and forestry products are expected to pocket some US$7.5 billion and US$7.7 billion, respectively./.

Source: Viettrade