Food, fisheries exports decline

The value of agricultural exports in the first six months declined by 5.7 per cent to $6.93 billion and that of fisheries products fell by 16 per cent to $2.97 billion, particularly on the US market, compared with the same period last year. — Photo baohaiquan

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam saw a 2.8 per cent year-on-year reduction in the export value of agricultural, fisheries, and forestry products to record US$14.42 billion during the first half of 2015.

This includes $2.6 billion recorded in June, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

However, the export value of forestry products gained year-on-year by 8 per cent to $3.29 million in the first half of this year.

During the period, rice exports reduced in both volume and value at 6.2 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively, to 3 million and $1.3 billion, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

China was still the largest export market of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 36 per cent of the total rice export value, the ministry said.

But the rice exports to China dropped 19.6 per cent in volume and 22.6 per cent in value during the first half of this year against the same period last year.

Coffee exports also fell 35.8 per cent in volume to 687,000 tonnes and 35 per cent in value to $1.42 billion in comparison with the first half of last year. Germany and the United States continued as the two largest export markets of Vietnamese coffee in the first six months.

The other products such as tea and rubber saw a similar trend during the first half of the year.

Pepper, cashew nuts, and cassava exports achieved growth in export value in the first half of the year.

Cassava marked a year-on-year increase of 42.6 per cent to $844 million, while cashew rose 28.2 per cent to $1.08 billion, and pepper registered 6.1 per cent growth to $838 million. — VNS