Vietnam sees growth in Jan-May agro-forestry-seafood exports

Vietnam's agro-forestry-seafood export turnover in the first five months of the year reached US$7.2 billion, representing an on-year increase of nearly 16%, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Of the total, agricultural products earned US$3.9 billion, up 7%; seafood, US$1.62 billion, up 17.3%; and forest products US$1.1 billion, up 9.5%.

All the three commodity groups saw high export growths because prices of almost all products were higher than 2009.

For seafood exports, Vietnam saw stable growths in its leading export markets over the past five months, including Japan with an increase of 17.8%, the US with 16.5% and the Republic of Korea with 19.7%.

The rice export volume in the first five months dropped 0.8% compared to the same period last year to 2.9 million tonnes, but the product's export turnover rose by 3.5% to US$1.5 billion.

In the five-month period, the agricultural sector imported around US$5.4 billion worth of materials for processing, up 47% on-year.