|
Agricultural exports up 14%
Agricultural, forest and seafood exports totalled US$10.13 billion in the first seven months of the year, an increase of 14 per cent over the same period last year, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In July alone, export value increased by $300 million over the previous month to $1.53 billion.
All farming, forest and seafood products registered growth in exports due to an increase of export prices against the same period of last year, noted the director of the ministry's Informatics and Statistics Centre, Nguyen Viet Chien.
Rubber noted the highest export price at $2,744 per tonne, double that of July 2009, Chien said. Rubber exports totalled 299,000 tonnes and earned $821 million, a reduction of 10.4 per cent in volume but an increase of 71 per cent in value.
Pepper also saw a year-on-year increase of 35 per cent in average export price to $3,131 per tonne.
As many as 87,000 tonnes were exported, earning $274 million, an increase of just 5 per cent in volume but 42 per cent in value.
During the first seven months, an average cashew exports jumped by 16.5 per cent to $5,300 per tonne compared with the same period of last year. Cashew exports totalled 100,000 tonnes and earned $531 million, an increase of 5.38 per cent in volume and 23 per cent in value.
Forest and wooden products also surged by 31 per cent to $1.9 billion due to an increase in average export prices for those products.
Tea exports had an increase of six per cent in value to $91 million but registered a drop of 4 per cent in volume to 65,000 tonnes.
Tran Van Gia, Deputy Chairman of the Viet Nam Tea Association, said the reduction of tea exports to Pakistan had accounted for the total export volume fall. However, an increase of average export prices by 13 per cent to $1,400 per tonne pushed total export value up.
Rice, one of the key export products, also saw a decline in volume by 5 per cent to 4 million tonnes, earning $2 billion, Chien said.
Transactions on the world rice market seemed to slow over the past month because Thailand limited rice exports to maintain prices while import countries negotiated more carefully.
Seafood exports saw an increase in the first seven months of 11.6 per cent to $2.45 billion, said Chien. Shrimp lead in export value at $717 million, accounting for 35 per cent of the total. Tra and basa catfish exports followed with a value of $650 million.
In contrast, coffee exports faced a fall in both volume and value in the first seven months. Coffee totalled 754,000 tonnes and earned $1 billion, a 4.3 per cent reduction in volume and 9 per cent in value.
The Viet Nam Coffee and Cacao Association said in the first five months, the average export price of coffee dropped by 6 per cent to $1,399 per tonne but the price recovered to $1,650 per tonne in June and July.
The coffee industry still expected to reach its export target at $1.5 billion for this year, the association said.
Most agricultural exports remained unprocessed products that were susceptible to fluctuating prices on the world market, noted Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien.
vietnamnews
|
