Thisrepresents an 11.9 percent increase from that of the same period lastyear, with exports in August accounting for 2.47 billion USD,according to a Vietnam Economics Times newspaper report quoting figuresfrom the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Thefigures also revealed a year-on-year increase in the value of exportsfrom the farming sector by 5.7 percent, to 11.4 billion USD. The samewas true for the fishing sector, which registered a 25.4 percentyear-on-year increase to 4.95 billion USD, and the forestry sector, whichposted a 12.7 percent year-on-year increase to 3.87 billion USD.
Ministryofficials revealed that in the first eight months of the year, theaverage export price of Vietnamese rice rose by 3.1 percent to 452.3USDper tonne compared with that of the same period last year.
Butthe average export volume of rice fell by nine percent to 4.44 milliontonnes, and the average export value of the commodity likewise fell by5.3 percent to 2.01 billion USD.
During the period, Vietnamexperienced a sudden increase, estimated to be 2.8 times more in bothvolume and value, in its rice exports to the Philippines, making thelatter its second largest export market at 23 percent of total exportvolume.
China is still the largest export market for Vietnameserice, accounting for 36.18 percent of total export volume in the firsteight months of the year.
Ministry officials revealed that riceexports passing through the border to China slowed down in the past twomonths after the latter tightened its restrictions on rice imports,thereby sparking an increase in the price of the country's rice exports.
TheVietnam Food Association said rice exports to China via large contractswere ongoing since the early part of this year and were expected toreach a total of 1.1 million tonnes.
The association predictedthe national export volume of rice to reach 1.9 million tonnes in thethird quarter, 1.4 million tonnes in the last quarter and 6.3 milliontonnes for the entire year, as a result of the high demand for riceexports in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The ministryreported that coffee exports in the first eight months gained ayear-on-year increase of 26.8 percent in volume to 1.22 million tonnesand 22.3 percent in value to 2.53 billion USD.
But the exportvolume represented only half of that in May, and this was attributed to alow supply of coffee from farmers and enterprises since April.
Meanwhile,exports of cashew achieved a year-on-year surge of 13.9 percent involume to 188,000 tonnes and 15 percent in value to 1.22 billion USD.The US, China and Netherlands remained the three largest cashew exportmarkets for Vietnam.
In the first eight months, pepper exportsalso jumped by 23.9 percent in volume to 126,000 tonnes and 38.2 percentin value to 926 million USD compared with that of the same period oflast year. The four largest export markets for Vietnamese pepper are theUS, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and India, accounting for 45.73percent of total export value.
The exports of seafood productsreached 4.95 billion USD in the first eight months, or 25.4 percent morethan that of the same period of last year.
The US remained thelargest export market for seafood products, with a total export value at973.8 million USD, a 38.6 percent year-on-year increase. Other largeseafood export markets such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Chinaalso saw an increase in value for the first eight months, the ministrysaid.-VNA