Vietnam’s agro-forestry and fisheries exports hit 17.43 billion USD inthe first seven months of this year, up nearly 12 percent from the sameperiod a year earlier. The figure included 2.38 billion USD earned inJuly.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, pepper maintained growth, with 119,000 tonnes shippedabroad for 862 million USD, up about 29 percent in volume and 42 percentin value.

Vietnamese pepper’s largest markets in theperiod were the US, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and India, whichall together made up 46 percent of the total pepper export marketshare.

Cashew nuts enjoyed an over 2 percent rise with 158,000tonnes exported in the reviewed period, raking in over 1 billion USD,nearly 16 percent in volume and 17.5 percent in value higher than thesame period’s figure.

The seven-month exports ofcoffee reached 2.31 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of nearly 22percent, while wood and wood products enjoyed a 13.4 percent rise inearnings with 3.35 billion USD.

Meanwhile, aquatic exportsbrought home 4.2 billion USD, up 24.5 percent year on year. Vietnameseaquatic products mainly went to the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea andChina.
A drop in both volume and value was seen in the export of rice, tea, rubber and cassava products.

Riceexports experienced decreases of 8 percent in volume and 4.8 percent invalue with 3.86 million tonnes and 1.75 billion USD. China remained thelargest importer of the staple, accounting for 39 percent of Vietnam’sexport volume, followed by the Philippines, Ghana and Singapore.

Thecountry exported 451.000 tonnes of rubber for 828 million USD, facing adrop of 10 percent in volume and 32 percent in value.

At the same time, tea also suffered a 6.7 percent fall in volume andan 1 percent decrease in value with only 70,000 tonnes shipped worth 116million USD.-VNA