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Fisheries, farms hunt for markets
A US$12.5 billion target has been set for this year.
The agro-forestry and fishery industry need to find new markets, promote trade and boost production to achieve their export target of US$12.5 billion for this year, said Deputy Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong.
The sector also had to build a seafood distribution system in foreign countries to cut middlemen and supply products to large markets to ensure the stability of consumption sources, he said.
To make changes in export market structure, the sector had to seek new markets in addition to developing traditional markets such as the US, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.
Agricultural and seafood firms would get support from the ministry and trade agencies to tackle technical barriers in export markets, he added.
"More work should also be done to examine and control chemical residues in agricultural products to ensure goods meet international standards," he said.
According to the ministry, agro-forestry and fishery export reached $1.3 billion in June, raising the sector’s total export revenues in the first half of the year to $7,62 billion, a decrease of 2.4 per cent over the same period last year.
Export value of the main agricultural products remained at $4.3 billion while most forestry and fishery products saw a decline. Seafood export reached $1.7 billion, dropping by 11.2 per cent. This was followed by forestry products which generated a turnover of $1.2 billion, a year-on-year 18.8 per cent decline.
According to Duong Long Tri, Deputy Director of the ministry’s Informatics and Statistics Centre, the decrease in export revenues in the first six months was mainly due to falling prices.
That was why some key exports such as coffee, rubber and tea saw a large increase in export volume but total export value still fell, he said.
Rice was still the top export with a boost in both quantity and value. During the period, the country shipped abroad 3.8 million tonnes of rice, fetching $1.8 billion, a 57 percent increase in volume and 25 per cent increase in value.
Markets for rice remained unchanged. The Philippines was still the largest importer, accounting for 50 per cent of total value, equal to $752 million. Malaysia followed with $129 million, accounting for 9 per cent.
Ministry figures show that coffee exports were up 23 per cent in volume (741,000 tones) but down 12 per cent in value, attaining $1.1 billion due to a drop in price of $500 per tonne.
Rubber exports suffered the same fate during the period, with volume reaching 229,000 tones and turnover $325 million, down 7 per cent in volume and 48 per cent in value from the same period last year.
Tea products also saw a decrease of 0.66 per cent in earnings, despite of a 7.7 per cent rise in volume.
Despite problems such as droughts, fodder price hike and global crisis in the period, the agro-forestry and fishery production grew considerably thanks partly to the Government’s stimulus package. However, this is the lowest rise over the past 10 years.
Statistics released by the General Statistics Department show that the sector’s production gained VND97 trillion ($5.7 billion), 2.5 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year.
Agriculture production took the lead with VND70 trillion ($4 billion), followed by the forestry sector with VND3 trillion ($192 million) and seafood production with VND23 trillion ($1.3 billion).
The sector spent only $4.6 billion on import materials, a yearly drop of 19 per cent.
vietnamnet, vietnamnews
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