Vietnam earned US$1.46 from exporting some major agricultural and forestry products in the first quarter of this year, representing an on-year rise of 15 per cent and accounting for 17 per cent of the country’s total export turnover in the period, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Of the revenue, shipments of agricultural products fetched in US$1 billion while the remainder came from shipping forestry products abroad.
In March alone, the agro-forestry exports generated only US$487 million in value, down 18 per cent on-year, the ministry reported.
Rubber, pepper, rice and tea are reported to attain the highest growths in terms of export turnover among major agricultural export items during the time.
Rubber exports topped with the highest on-year rises of 50.9 per cent in value and 32.7 per cent in volume in the January-March period. The country already sold 162,000 tons of rubber abroad, raking in US$261 million so far.
Following was pepper with total export value of US$34 million, up 17.7 per cent on-year, despite influence of lower world prices.
Rice ranked third with shipments of 1.1 million tons worth US$306 million, up 4.9 per cent in volume and 7.3 per cent in value against the same period last year.
Tea exports, meanwhile, recorded a year-on-year rise of 2.7 per cent in value, registering the fourth highest export turnover growth among other items in the reviewed period.
Conversely, peanut, coffee, and cashew exports went down considerably with on-year falls of 83.4 per cent, 21.1 per cent, and 2.7 per cent to just US$2 million, 288 million, and 96 million, respectively, during the time.
This year, Vietnam is expected to earn US$5.6 billion from the export of agro-forestry products, according to the national strategy of socio-economic development set by the MARD for the 2006-2010 period.
Accordingly, MARD has devised plans, with specific tasks including increasing total agricultural value by 4.8 per cent, forestry by 1.5 per cent, and agro-forestry exports by 10 per cent, or US$5.6 billion.
Key export items will include rice, coffee, dry rubber latex, dry tea buds, cashew nuts and pepper. Vietnam Economic Times
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