Vietnam's agro-forestry-seafood sees surplus

Despite fluctuant overseas markets and domestic economic downturn, Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and seafood sector achieved a trade surplus of over 10.6 billion U. S. dollars in 2012, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on its website on Wednesday. Accordingly, the sector's export value this year reached 27.54 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.7 percent year-on-year, of which the agricultural exports earned 14.99 billion dollars, up 10 percent, seafood exports with 6.15 billion dollars, up 0.7 percent, and major forestry exports with 4.9 billion dollars, up 17.6 percent. Meanwhile the sector spent 16.94 billion dollars for the imports of materials and facilities for production, an increase of 5 percent year-on-year. As the end of this year, the country exported a high record of 8.1 million tons of rice, earning 3.7 billion dollars, an increase of 13.9 percent in volume and 2.1 percent in value year-on-year. The average export rice prices in the first 11 months reached 457 U.S. dollars per ton, a decrease of 10.4 percent. China was Vietnam's biggest rice importer this year, with import volume up 6.4 times and value up 5.4 times. Meanwhile, demands from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Senegal decreased during the year. The country exported 1.76 million tons of coffee, earning 3.74 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 40.3 percent in volume and 36 percent in value. The average coffee export prices hit 2, 137 U.S. dollars per tons, down 3.08 percent year on year. Two largest coffee importers include the United States (accounting for 12.03 percent of the country's coffee export value) and Germany ( 11.77 percent). Notably, demand for Vietnamese coffee from Indonesia sharply increased during the year, up 5.6 times in volume and value, while that from Belgium decreased 33.6 percent compared to the previous year. During the year, the country also exported 1,020 tons of rubber, earning 2.85 billion dollars, up 25 percent in volume but down 11. 7 percent in value due to declining export prices. Major importers included Malaysia, India and China's Taiwan. In addition, the country pocketed 227 million dollars from exporting 148,000 tons of tea, up 10.8 percent in volume and 11.5 percent in value year-on-year. Average export tea prices reached 1, 526 U.S. dollars per ton, up 0.4 percent. Pakistan remained the country's largest tea importer, accounting for 19.8 percent of the export market share. In 2012, Vietnam remained the world's top cashew exporter when exporting 223,000 tons of cashews worth 1.48 billion dollars, up 25.4 percent in volume and 0.7 percent in value year on year. The average cashew export prices in the first 11 months reached 6,681 U.S. dollars per tons, down 19.6 percent against last year. Major importers included the United States (accounting for 27.7 percent), China (19 percent), and Holland (11.9 percent). Among the agricultural imports this year, the country spent 1. 72 billion dollars to import 3.89 million tons of fertilizers, down 8.5 percent in volume and 3.2 percent in value; and 704 million dollars for insecticides, up 10 percent. Imports of wood and wood-based products cost the country 1.37 million dollars, up 1.6 percent compared with last year, while seafood imports were worth 656 million dollars, up 21.3 percent. Last year, Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and seafood sector achieved a trade surplus of 9.1 billion dollars, when it earned nearly 25 billion dollars from the exports, but spent 15.9 billion dollars for the imports.