Vietnam Agro Material Imports See Sharp Falls in Jan-July

Vietnam was estimated to have spent US$2.894 billion on importing seven major agricultural materials in the first seven months of 2009, with sharp decreases in almost all products, the Government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) has said.

 

Among them, imports of vegetable and animal oil; timber and wood products; and milk and milk products decreased most, the GSO showed.

 

In the January-July period, import of vegetable and animal oil decreased 36.6 per cent to US$282 million from a year ago, while import of timber and wood products dropped 35.9 per cent to only US$448 million; milk and milk products were down 17.4 per cent to US$269 million.

 

The country, meanwhile, witnessed pesticide imports fall by 15.8 per cent against the same period last year to US$275 million in the period and animal feed down 12.2 per cent to US$1.03 billion.

 

The GSO figure also reported that imports of paper fell 4.9 per cent in volume and 13.4 per cent in value to 547,000 tons and US$399 million, respectively.

 

Imports of wheat also saw a slight reduction of 2.7 per cent in value year-on-year to US$188 million despite a rise of 68.3 per cent in volume to 757,000 tons during the time, according to the GSO. (GSO Jul Edition)