Workers pick strawberries at a farm in Vietnam's Kon Tum province. - AFP
HANOI: Vietnam’s agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors run a trade surplus nearly doubling the figure of the same period last year, based on robust exports of major products such as coffee, rice and fruits.
The latest updates from the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry showed that agricultural, forestry and fishery exports totalled US$13.53bil, an increase of 21.8% over the same period last year, while imports reached US$10.18bil, leaving a surplus of US$3.36bil, an increase of 96.5%.
Four major export products with a value of more than US$1bil included wood, with a turnover of US$2.32bil, up 26.8%, fruits and vegetables US$1.23bil, up 25.8%, rice US$1.37bil, up 40% and coffee US$1.9bil, up 54.2%.
Average export prices of major agricultural products saw strong increases in the first quarter, such as rice up by 5% to US$661 per tonne, coffee up 6.8% to US$2,373 per tonne, rubber up 5.1% to US$1,462 per tonne and pepper up 35.6% to US$4.153 per tonne.
Still, some products saw drops in export prices, such as cashew down 8.6% to US$5,329 per tonne, tea down 2.2% to US$1,616 per tonne, and fertiliser down 9.1% to US$412 per tonne.
China is Vietnam’s largest export market, accounting for 20.2% of the country’s export value and seeing an increase of 18.3%, followed by the United States with 19.9% and an increase of 28.3%, and Japan with a share of 7% and an increase of 4.6%.
Coffee was the product with the strongest growth in the first quarter of this year.
Coffee exports reached 799,000 tonnes worth US$1.9bil in the first quarter, rising by 44.45% in volume and 54.2% in value over the same period last year.
This set a new mark for three-month coffee export value.
Vietnam has significantly increased its exports of robusta and arabica coffee while reducing excelsa. — Viet Nam News/ANN
