Exports of agricultural and forestry products witnessed positive changes in the first month of this year with total revenue of US$565 million, up 8.3 per cent on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Of the sum, US$375 million was reportedly contributed by agricultural products while the remainder came from forestry.
Coffee shipment, estimated at 130,000 tons, was particularly caffeinated with US$182 million in value, contributing 50 per cent to the total export revenue of the country in January and representing an on-year rise of 60 per cent in value.
As estimated by the International Coffee Organization (ICO), global production in the 2006/2007 crop will total 121 million bags (equaling to 7.26 million tons), increasing by 11.6 million bags against the last crop thanks to the higher prices. This reveals the advantage of coffee industry in exporting this year.
With stable and high prices, rubber exports were also high, with shipment of 65,000 tons and export value bouncing up by 18 per cent to US$104 million.
Other agricultural products with high export values included tea, with 7,000 tons in volume worth US$7 million, up 30 per cent against the same period last year.
However, rice, the country’s leading agricultural export item, showed a decline in export value in January, posting the lowest figure in over seven years, the MARD reported.
January rice exports reached only 40,000 tons, earning only US$15 million, a decrease of 19 per cent from last year. The state’s recent restrictions on rice exports to guarantee national food security following last year’s rice crop disease infestations resulted in the sharp decrease.
The Vietnam Food Association said, however, that there was reason for optimism due to high demand of world market. Vietnam is still expected to export about four million tons of rice by the end of this year.
Other leading products that showed declines in export value in January included pepper and cashew. With an export of about 4,000 tons, down 33 per cent from the same period last year, pepper fetched only US$7.6 million in export value, while cashew earned a modest US$28 million, a decline of 16 per cent.
Agricultural and forestry exports this year were expected to reach a turnover of US$7.5 billion, an increase of 5.8 per cent over 2006, according to the ministry. (Vietnam & World Economy)
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