Cashew processed for exports (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s export earnings from agro-forestry-aquaticproducts are likely to exceed 40 billion USD this year after reaching 15.6billion USD in the first five months, said Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Nguyen Xuan Cuong.
The export value of key agricultural products was estimated at 8.25 billion USDin the January-May period, up 9.6 percent year on year. Meanwhile, aquatic productscontributed 3.12 billion USD to the total export turnover, up 9.7 percent, andforestry products 3.4 billion USD, up 8.7 percent.
The Vietnam Administration of Forestry said that China, Japan, the Republic ofKorea and the US were the four largest importers of Vietnamese wood and woodenproducts. The export value of forestry products accounted for nearly 22 percentof the total export value.
In May alone, the country raked in 347 million USD from shipping abroad some452,000 tonnes of rice, bringing the total value and volume of rice exports inthe January-May period to 1.45 billion USD and 2.66 million tonnes, up 40percent and 13.9 percent, respectively.
Average rice price in the period experienced an increase of 12.9 percent to 503USD per tonne. China remains the largest buyer of Vietnamese rice, holding 33.5percent of the market share.
Vietnam also enjoyed robust shipments of cashew nuts. In the five months, itsold 139,000 tonnes of cashew nuts abroad and earned 1.37 billion USD, rising19 percent in volume and nearly 23 percent in value as compared to the sametime last year.
Some 1.3 million tonnes of cassava and cassava products were sold in foreigncountries for 460 million USD, falling 25.6 percent in volume and soaring 7.3percent in value.
Meanwhile, coffee exports increased 16 percent to 820,000 tonnes but dropped0.8 percent in value to 1.6 billion USD. Rubber exports also fell 12 percent invalue to 620 million USD although the exported amount was estimated at 424,000tonnes, or 16 percent higher than the same time last year.
The export turnover of pepper experienced a plunge of 37.6 percent. A total 108,000 tonnes were shipped abroad ata value of 377 million USD.
The ministry also said that the country spent 12.29 billion USD importing agro-forestry-aquaticproducts during January-May, a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent.
Minister Cuong said that the agricultural sector should further its efforts toremove bottlenecks.
Agricultural restructuring towards applying more high technologies intoproduction and branching out value chain is key to tackle the processing andpreservation issues, particularly when Vietnam is among five countries mostaffected by climate change, he noted.
Furthermore, Vietnamese agricultural products also face fierce competition inboth traditional and new markets due to tax and technical barriers. Thus, localbusinesses should keep close watch to the situation to have proper response,Cuong said.-VNA
VNA
