Hanoi (VNA)– Vietnam raked in 30.05 billion USD from exporting agro-forestry-aquatic products in the first three quarters of 2020 and the value is hoped to hit over40 billion USD for the whole year, said Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.

Speaking at a regular press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment in Hanoi on October 6, Tien said since the European Union (EU)-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) cameinto effect, Vietnam's agro-forestry-aquatic product exports to the EUmarket have reached 766.3 million USD.

The export turnover inAugust increased by 11.5 percent compared to July, while that in Septembersurged over 30 percent against July, he noted.

Commodity sectors needto pay attention to standardizing seed, production process, transportation, andprocessing, to fully tap the agreement towards realizing the set goal, he said. 

Reports presented at the press conference showed that although the area of food cropshas slightly decreased this year due to crop conversion, the food production outputis forecast to reach at least 43 million tonnes.

The livestock industryhas recorded stable development as the diseases on cattle and poultry have beencontrolled basically. The Ministry has coordinated with other ministries,sectors, localities and businesses to implement many solutions to ensure food suppliesfor domestic consumption and export.

As a result, the livestock sector recorded the highest growth in production value in the third quarter,reaching 9.67 percent.

Meanwhile, the value of fishery production in the third quarter was up 2.5percent over the same period last year, resulting in a year-on-year rise of 2.48percent in the first nine months.

Due to the impact ofthe COVID-19 pandemic, wood processing businesses have been facing difficultiesas many wood export orders were cancelled or delayed.

A total of 1.42 trillion VND of forestenvironment service fees were collected in the reviewed period, reaching 50 percentof the set plan in 2020 and equal to 76 percent compared with the same periodin 2019.

Tiensaid that the industry is focusing on measures to restore the production,processing and export of forest products.

It is expected that the forest coveragerate will reach 42 percent, while the export turnover of forest products willdefinitely hit over 12 billion USD this year, he added./.