Agro-forestry and fisheries hit $27.5b

Viet Nam's agro-forestry and fishery exports this year climbed a marginal 0.7 per cent year-on-year to about US$27.47 billion, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

Viet Nams agro-forestry and fishery exports this year climbed a marginal 0.7 per cent year-on-year to about US$27.47 billion

The ministry noted that seafood remained the country's top export industry, earning $6.7 billion in 2013. The staple fetched nearly $620 million in December alone.

The US remains Viet Nam's biggest seafood market, accounting for 22 per cent of total exports. Seafood exports to China, Canada and Thailand increased by 63 percent, 33.6 percent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.

In 2013, the forestry industry contributed $5.37 billion to the country's exports by value, up 15.2 per cent from last year.

While seafood and forestry exports surged in 2013, the export earnings of some important farm products declined 11.9 per cent to $13.1 billion.

The situation was due to global market fluctuations and unfavourable weather conditions, the ministry said, adding some important agricultural products, such as rice, coffee, tea and cassava, experienced a considerable drop in both the value and volume of exports.

The country shipped 1.32 million tonnes of coffee abroad for $2.75 billion, which is down 23.6 per cent by volume and 25 per cent by value compared with last year. Germany and the US are Viet Nam's largest coffee importers, accounting for 13 per cent and 11 per cent of the country's totals, respectively.

Rice exports also suffered the same trend, declining 17.4 per cent by volume to 6.61 million tonnes and 19.7 per cent by value to $2.95 billion. By contrast, export earnings by value from cashew nuts and pepper jumped considerably.

Cashew nut exporting companies generated $1.63 billion from delivering 257,000 tonnes of output this year, up 15.8 per cent by volume and 9.7 per cent by value.

(Source: VNS)