Farm exports up 13%

Viet Nam’s agriculture, aquaculture and forestry exports earned US$1.6 billion during the first month of this year, a year-on-year increase of 13.3 per cent, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Agriculture exports earned $910 million, an increase of 19.34 per cent over the same month last year. Meanwhile, fisheries and forestry exports both earned close to $320 million each.

Coffee, cashews, rubber and pepper continue to be the key exports that are fetching high prices globally.

“The weather in January was not good. Moreover, demand for these products has been increasing because the Lunar New Year Festival is coming.

These two reasons have pushed prices up,” said head of the ministry’s Information and Statistics Centre Nguyen Viet Chien.

Rubber is still the most valuable export. In January, the country earned $250 million from exporting 70,000 tonnes of rubber, an 82.8 per cent increase in value and 28.8 per cent jump in volume over the same month last year.

Cashews is the country’s second highest earner. The country sold 15,000 tonnes on the international market earning $98 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.3 per cent in volume and 38.3 per cent in value.

About 7,000 tonnes of pepper and 11,000 tonnes of tea were exported.

In January, Viet Nam’s coffee export volume decreased by 30.3 per cent to 100,000 tonnes.

However, the bean earned $175 million, a 13.2 per cent increase over the same month last year.

“The global supply of coffee has decreased so the price continues to rise,” said Chien.

This month, about 380,000 tonnes of rice were exported, worth $200 million. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam Agricultural exports