HANOI – According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Mard), Vietnam’s agricultural, forestry and seafood sector posted an estimated trade surplus of 7.48 billion U.S. dollars in the first ten months of 2013.
The sector earned 22.73 billion dollars from exports while spending 15.25 billion dollars for imports during the period.
The figures posted a year-on-year increase of only 0.2 percent for the export value, and 10.4 percent for the import value, the ministry said.
Of the total export value, main agricultural exports contributed 10.94 billion dollars, down 12.3 percent year on year. Forestry exports recorded a turnover of over 4.57 billion dollars, up 14.8 percent, and seafood exports had over 5.37 billion dollars, up 6 percent.
During the 10-month period, while rice, coffee, rubber and tea exports sustained decreases both in volume and value, while cashew and pepper exports made strong growth.
The United States and Germany were two largest importers of Vietnamese coffee, accounting for 13 percent and 10.9 percent respectively. Coffee exports to Russia, Britain and Spain increased by 8.8 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.
At a seminar on solutions to difficulties facing agricultural and forest product export markets, a representative at the Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (VASEP), said, thus far this year, seafood export continues to face difficulty because of unstable supply of input materials and contracting markets weighed by global economic turmoil.
In addition, lawsuits and product returns have affected Vietnam ’s seafood export turnover and brand names. Luong Van Tu, president of Vietnam Coffee – Cocoa Association (VICOFA), added that coffee export revenue slipped in the first eight months as production output decreased 20 percent from a year earlier.
He said difficulties facing Vietnamese coffee firms also include strong competition from foreign purchasers in the country.
