June 26, 2013

Vietnam H1 agricultural exports down on-year

The value of farm, forest and seafood exports of Vietnam went down by 1.7% at US$13.53 billion in the first half this year, figures from the the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) show.

Nguyen Thi Hong, head of MARD's Planning Department, said exports had often achieved high growth in recent years due to high demand, but since mid-2012, demand and prices on the world market had dropped.

During the first half of this year, the export value of most farm products, including rice, coffee, latex, tea and cassava, fell 10.5 per cent to reach US$7.59 billion.

Coffee exports showed the largest drop, 24.2% in volume and 22.4% in value, followed by cassava with a fall of 29.4% in volume and 15 per cent in value, latex with 5% in volume and 20% in value and rice with 7% in volume and 10 % in value.

Meanwhile, the value of seafood exports reached US$2.88 billion for the first half this year, unchanged against the same period last year.

However, the value of forestry exports rose by 12.4% to US$2.31 billion in the first six months.

The overall decline in exports was also reflected in a decline in domestic consumption of farm products.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said the farming, forestry and seafood industries should closely control exports to foreign countries, such as the European Union, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, to ensure quality was maintained.