The agriculture and rural development sector witnessed a year-on-year increase of 1.4 per cent in export value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products to US$4.3 billion in the first two months of 2017.

The export value in February alone was estimated at $1.9 billion, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).During the first two months, major farming products saw a year-on-year surge of 8.8 per cent to $2.4 billion, thanks mainly to growth in coffee export value, while seafood export value hit $844 million, down 3.1 per cent from the same period last year.Meanwhile, the forestry industry saw a slight increase of 0.3 per cent in export value to $993 million.In the first two months, coffee exports decreased by 7.3 per cent in volume to 273,000 tonnes but went up 22.3 per cent in value to $616 million compared with the same period last year.Rice exports plummeted in both volume and value. Shipments dropped by 17.2 per cent in volume to 799,000 tonnes and by 40.6 per cent in value to $248 million against the same period last year.

The ministry said in February, rice price rose by VND100-400 per kg depending on the variety of rice to VND5,400-6,500 in Mekong Delta provinces because enterprises purchased rice for shipping to the Philippines under signed contracts.

However, the price was expected to reduce from March because of higher supply after harvesting rice of the winter-spring crop since the end of February.Similar drops were witnessed in other farming products, such as tea and cashew nuts, falling 6.9 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, in export value and 1.4 per cent and 26.2 per cent, respectively, in volume.

Pepper export down

Pepper export experienced a decline in both value and volume in the first two months of 2017, MARD reported. Viet Nam shipped 16,000 tonnes of pepper overseas, earning $112 million, down 19.8 per cent in volume and 36.3 per cent in value compared with last year.Business insiders attributed the reduction to a global oversupply trend.Viet Nam has witnessed a surge in the number of the pepper growers following increasing pepper prices in recent years. The country accounts for 50 per cent of the global peppercorns for trade, thus its growing yield is likely to diminish prices in the global market.

Currently, domestic peppercorn prices are under VND120,000 ($5.27) per kg, some VND35,000 ($1.5) less than that of the same period last year. Do Ha Nam, head of the Viet Nam Pepper Association, said the prices still bring profit for growers and are higher than that of other industrial plants, such as coffee and rubber trees. He pointed to accelerating quality management as a way to avoid external pressures to reduce price in the global market.

Rubber exports up

Viet Nam shipped abroad an estimated 193,000 tonnes of rubber for $392 million in the first two months of this year, up 25.4 per cent in volume and 2.4 times in value against the same period last year. According to MARD, domestic rubber market recorded signals of recovery as rubber prices showed a significant increase in February this year in line with the world trend. The average export price in January was almost $1,922 per tonne, a year-on-year increase of 70.6 per cent. Enterprises attributed the situation to the recovery of oil prices globally and the negative impact of the weather, which led to a drop in rubber output. Domestic rubber firms have moved up the purchase price of rubber latex in line with the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (Tocom) of Japan.

At present, the rubber price at the Tocom doubles the average export price of Viet Nam’s rubber in 2015 and 2016. - VNS