Vietnam reportedly fetched total earning of US$4.4 billion from exporting agricultural and forestry products in the first half of this year, posting an on-year rise of 27 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Of the sum, shipments of farm produce chalked up US$3.2 billion while the remainder was contributed by forestry products.
The ministry attributed sharp increases in both value and volume of coffee, cashew, tea, rubber, and pepper shipments to the strong growth of agro-forestry export revenue.
Coffee remains one of the country’s top export items in terms of value, which was mostly due to a spike in global market prices. Nearly 832,000 tons of coffee, worth US$1.2 billion, were sold abroad during January-June period, up 64 per cent and 108.9 per cent, respectively.
Other big movers in exports also include cashew nuts with export volume of 63,000 tons, valued at US$258 million thanks to export price hike by 2 per cent to US$4,100 per ton. The figures represented consecutive increases of 15 per cent and 18 per cent against the same period last year.
The export value of tea and rubber increased only modestly in the past six months of this year with US$547 million for 291,000 tons rubber being shipped abroad, up 6 per cent on-year in volume.
Tea export, meanwhile, reportedly grew by 7 per cent year-on-year to 47,000 tons in the first half, worth US$44 million or up 1 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
Despite a sharp fall of 40 per cent in export volume, Vietnamese pepper exporters still witnessed value increase by 26 per cent on-year to US$137 million during the time.
However, rice, one of the country’s key export items, saw export volume of more than 2.3 million tons, earning as little as US$731 million. This was down 18.9 per cent in volume and 5.6 per cent in value against the same period last year.
The decline results from difficulties in leasing rice transport ships, an increase in freight charges, and bad weather hindering the loading of rice onto ships.
Vietnam last year earned a total US$7.16 billion from shipping agricultural and forestry products abroad. The figure is expected to increase to US$8 billion this year and is set at US$11 billion by 2010 and US$16.5 billion for ten years later.
The agro-forestry-fishery sector attained the growth rate of 2.67 per cent in the first six months of this year because droughts, bird flu, foot and mouth disease and an epidemic of brown hoppers had hampered the sector. (Vietnam & World Economy)
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