Last week, Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that during the first seven months of 2016, the agro-forestry-fishery sector hit a total export turnover of $17.8 billion, up 5.1 per cent against the same period last year, when it reached $16.9 billion, down 3.6 per cent year-on-year.
In this period, Vietnam-based firms exported 1.13 million tonnes of coffee, making a turnover of almost $2 billion, up 38 per cent in quantity and 18 per cent in value year-on-year.
According to a source from Thu Ha Coffee Company, a renowned domestic brand, the firm’s coffee export turnover has climbed significantly since the beginning of this year and might be in the double digits for the whole year.
The MARD has also reported that Vietnam raked in $3.65 billion from exporting aquatic products, up 3.3 per cent against the $3.5 billion (down 17 per cent year-on-year) of last year.
According to the MARD, the agro-forestry-fishery sector’s export turnover should have been far higher than the $17.8 billion, had the sector not been hit by droughts and saline inundation, and the environmental scandal caused by Taiwanese firm Formosa in the central region.
During this year’s first seven months, as a result of these calamities, over 400,000 hectares of crops have been affected with varying degrees of output loss, and 25,900 hectares remained unplanted.
Meanwhile, the Formosa scandal has been directly affecting the livelihood of nearly 300,000 fishermen since April. Fishermen have suffered from a loss of 1,600 tonnes of fish every month
