Agricultural exports up 33%

Viet Nam earned US$13.9 billion from agricultural exports during the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 33.4 per cent.

According to the director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Information and Statistics Centre, Nguyen Viet Chien, agricultural products such as rice, pepper and rubber made up $8.1 billion of total exports, an increase of 44.6 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.

Chien added that the increase had occurred mainly due to price hikes experienced by agricultural products.

In seven months, rice exports hit $2.3 billion on 4.7 million tonnes sent abroad, and increase of 9.7 per cent in volume and 10.8 per cent in value.

Indonesia remained Viet Nam’s largest rice importer, followed by the Philippines to which exports declined by 50 per cent.

To compensate for the Philippino downturn, local companies have been exploring new markets in Senegal and Bangladesh.

Total pepper exports hit 85,000 tonnes, valued at $465 million, a surge of 70.9 per cent on a largely unchanged volume.

Pepper exports to the US increased by 17.4 per cent in volume, doubling in value.

Forestry products reached $2.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent, while fisheries products hit $3.1 billion, increasing by 24.8 per cent.

According to the centre, the total import value of agro-forestry and fisheries products and materials reached $9 billion in the first seven months, an increase of 20.4 per cent over same period last year. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam Agricultural exports