Vietnam's agriculture and seafood sector gains $6bn surplus in first 8 months

Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and seafood sector would likely post a trade surplus of nearly 6 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, when it pocketed over 17.98 billion dollars from the exports and disbursed about 12.09 billion dollars for the imports during the period. Statistics figures by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Tuesday revealed that of the total export value, main agricultural exports contributed 8.99 billion dollars, a year- on-year decrease of 11.7 percent, forestry exports with 3.52 billion dollars, up 11.7 percent, and seafood exports with 4 billion dollars, up 1.3 percent. In the 8-month period, while the export value of tea, cashew and pepper posted an increase, that of rice, coffee, rubber and cassava hit a decrease, compared to the same period last year. Specifically, the country exported 88,000 tons of tea, worth 140 million dollars, a decrease of 4 percent in volume, but an increase of 0.7 percent in value, year on year; 168,000 tons of cashew, worth 1.07 billion dollars, up 18.9 percent in volume and 10.8 percent in value; and 103,000 tons of pepper worth 677 million dollars, up 20.4 percent in volume and 16.1 percent in value. Meanwhile, the export value of rice posted a decrease of 15.7 percent in volume and 18.4 percent in value; coffee exports down 23.2 percent in volume and 22.5 percent in value; and rubber exports down 14.1 percent in value, year on year. After several months facing a downturn, seafood exports in August regained a growth, with an increase of 1.3 percent in value for the whole 8-month period. The United States maintained the biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood, accounting for 20.9 percent of the country's total seafood export value. Besides, demands from China, Canada and Thailand also increased, by 52.7 percent, 6.8 percent and 9.6 percent year-on-year respectively. The timber and wood-based exports retained their growth, with demands from most major markets continuing on the rise, for example the United States (up 7.2 percent), China (14.7 percent), Japan (20.3 percent), and South Korea (48.2 percent). During the reviewed period, the sector spent 1.08 billion dollars to import 2.83 million tons of fertilizers (up 16.71 percent in volume and 2.8 percent in value), 502 million dollars for insecticide (up 13.8 percent), and 2.09 billion dollars for animal feed (up 41.1 percent), 918 million dollars for raw timber and 415 million for raw seafood.