Five out of eight key farming commodities resumed impressive exports with two-digit growth in March against the previous month despite the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, said the General Department of Customs.

Those five farm products included vegetables, cashew, pepper, rice and cassava.

In March, cashew nuts had the highest export growth rate with 68.4 per cent in volume to 43,944 tonnes and 67 per cent in value to US$309.2 million compared to the previous month.

Following was cassava with an increase of 47.4 per cent in volume and 63.6 per cent in value to 332,727 tonnes and $116 million, respectively.

Other three commodities with high growth in export value included pepper (45.6 per cent to $83 million); fruits and vegetables (42.5 per cent to $361.6 million); and rice (14 per cent to $271.5 million).

Meanwhile, coffee exports declined by 2.2 per cent in volume to 169,981 tonnes but increased slightly by 0.6 per cent in value to $294.8 million.

Rubber had the strongest decrease in exports compared to the previous month with 21.8 per cent in volume to 60,562 tonnes and 23.2 per cent in value to $87 million.

The other commodity with export reduction in both volume and value was tea with a drop of 1.8 per cent and 2.8 per cent to 9,277 tonnes and $13 million, respectively.

The export value of those eight key farm products in March reached $1.62 billion, up 32.1 per cent compared to February. That figure brought the total export value in the first quarter to $ 3.98 billion, up 0.3 per cent year on year.

China was still Viet Nam's largest agricultural export market in the first three months of this year with an export value of $ 1.15 billion. However, this figure declined by 7 per cent over the same period of last year.

The second and third largest export markets of local farm produce were the EU market with $684 million, up 5.5 per cent, and the US with $402 million, up 7 per cent year on year. — VNS