Viet Nam's agro-forestry-aquatic exports rise 7% in eight months

Of the total, overseas shipments of agricultural products were valued at 25.66 billion USD, up 2.7%; livestock products at 511.9 million USD, up 30%; aquatic products at 7.94 billion USD, up 10.9%; and forestry products at 12.57 billion USD, up 5.4%.

Asia remained the largest export market for Viet Nam’s major agro-forestry-aquatic products, accounting for 45.5% of the total. It was followed by the Americas and Europe, with shares of 21.5% and 13.4%, respectively. Africa and Oceania made up 2.3% and 1.5%.

Exports to Asia went up 11.3% year on year, while those to the Americas and Europe increased 0.6% and 1.7%, respectively. Shipments to Oceania climbed 16.4%, and Africa fell 18.3%.

China, the US and Japan were the three largest individual markets, accounting for 22.7%, 19.1% and 6.8% of Viet Nam’s exports, respectively.

Among key products, fruit and vegetables, pepper and cashew nuts posted export growth during the period. Fruit and vegetables recorded the strongest growth, reaching 6.02 billion USD, up 24.9%. Pepper exports stood at 1.24 billion USD, up 9.6%, and cashew exports reached 3.35 billion USD, up 2%.

Cashew nuts were the only among the three that saw a decline in export volume but an increase in value. The volume fell 1.7%, but its value rose 2% as the average export price rose 3.7% to 7,058 USD per tonne.

Pepper exports gained in value despite a 4.3% drop in the average export price, mainly because the export volume increased 14.5%.

Meanwhile, coffee, rubber, tea, rice, cassava and cassava products experienced lower exports. Rice saw the sharpest drop, down 11.9% to 2.86 billion USD, followed by coffee at 9.1%, rubber at 6.2%, cassava and cassava products at 2.5%, and tea at 2%.

Coffee export volume rose 13.1%, but its value fell 9.1% as the average export price dropped 19.7%. Rubber shipments fell 16.1% in volume while the average price increased 11.9%, but this was not enough to offset the decline in volume.

Rice faced pressure from both lower export volume and prices, which respectively fell 6.3% and 6%, resulting in an 11.9% decline in export value. Tea shipments contracted 10.2% in volume, but the average export price rose 9.1%, limiting the decline in value to 2%.

On the import side, Viet Nam’s agro-forestry-aquatic imports were estimated at 35.06 billion USD in the first eight months, up 8.1% year on year. The import value in August fell 9.9% from the previous month and 7.4% from the same month last year.

The US, China and Cambodia were the three largest suppliers, respectively accounting for 10.2%, 9.7% and 7.2% of Viet Nam’s agro-forestry-fishery imports. Purchases from these markets climbed 22.4%, 8% and 21.7% from a year earlier, respectively.