Agro-forestry-seafood exports see sharp increase in five months

Vietnam’s agro-forestry-seafood export turnover in the first five months of the year reached US$7.2 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of nearly 16 percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Of the total, agricultural products earned US$3.9 billion, up 7 percent; seafood, US$1.62 billion, up 17.3 percent; and forest products, US$1.1 billion, up 9.5 percent. All the three commodity groups saw high export growth because the prices of almost all products were higher than in 2009.

Rubber topped the list of agro-forestry exports that saw increases in both volume and value with 191,000 tonnes worth US$513 million exported in the five-month period, representing respective increases of 3.7 percent and nearly 100 percent.

It was followed by tea with 45,000 tonnes worth US$62 million, up 11.3 percent in volume and 22 percent in value; cashew nuts with 61,000 tonnes worth US$319 million, up 4.4 percent in volume and 24 percent in value; and pepper with 59,000 tonnes worth US$181 million, up over 10 percent in volume and 47 percent in value.

For seafood exports, Vietnam saw stable growth in its leading export markets over the past five months, including Japan with an increase of 17.8 percent, the US with 16.5 percent and the Republic of Korea with 19.7 percent.

However, five-month coffee exports decreased in both volume and value, registering a fall of 11.4 percent and 17.3 percent respectively. The total coffee export volume only reached 584,000 tonnes, bringing home US$810 million. The decreases were blamed on coffee prices falling 7.5 percent year-on-year to US$1,386 per tonne.

The rice export volume in the first five months dropped 0.8 percent compared to the same period last year to 2.9 million tonnes, but the product’s export turnover rose by 3.5 percent to US$1.5 billion. In the reviewed period, the agricultural sector imported around US$5.4 billion worth of materials for processing, up 47 percent year-on-year.

VOV, VNA

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