Vietnam's agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector had a year-on-yearincrease of 20.1 percent in imports in the first five months of thisyear.

This announcement was made by the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development, adding that the increase was a total 8.56 billionUSD in imports of material and products for production.

Duringthe first five months, Vietnam imported pesticide worth a total of 337million USD, 5.6 percent higher than the same period last year.

Almostall the pesticide products used in the domestic market were imported,with an annual volume of 70,000 tonnes, stated Bui Si Doanh, Deputy Headof the Plant Protection Department.

Imports of animal feedproducts material for producing animal feed had a light surge of 0.1percent to 1.2 billion USD against the same period last year. Of which,imports had a year-on-year increase of 49 percent in volume to 809,000tonnes and also the same percentage in value to 474 million USD forsoybean.

Imports of corn surged by 3 times in volume to 2.24million tonnes and 2 times in value to 576 million USD compared with thesame period last year.

Vietnam must pay 200 million USD eachyear to import varieties of plants, including fruit, vegetable and rice,the ministry said.

Meanwhile, in the first five months of thisyear, imports of fertiliser had a reduction of 14.9 percent in volume to1.31 million tonnes and 35.8 percent in value to 405 million USDagainst the same period last year because the domestic supply increasedto meet the demand at home market.

Experts reported that theagricultural sector should reduce imports of products and materials forproduction to gain sustainable development of the sector in the future.To achieve the target, the sector should promote attraction ofinvestment from both domestic and foreign enterprises with moderntechnology for increased output and quality of farming products to avoiddependence on imports.-VNA