Agricultural sector persists with 50 billion USD export target

This year's agro-forestry-fishery exports are targeted at 50 billion USD. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Despite numerous difficulties coming from the domestic and international situation, the agricultural sector has managed to achieve important targets, and it still persists in this year’s agro-forestry-fishery export target of 50 billion USD as assigned by the Prime Minister.

So said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien at the ministry’s regular press briefing on September 5.

Vietnam earned about 36.3 billion USD in agro-forestry-fishery exports in the first eight months of 2022, up 13.1% from a year earlier. Seven groups of products recorded export revenue of over 2 billion USD each, namely coffee, rubber, rice, fruit and vegetables, cashew nut, shrimp, and wood.

The sector has sustained growth and guaranteed food security, helping ensure major balances of the economy, Tien said.

Pointing out certain challenges, he noted the time from now to the year’s end is the storm season while there are latent risks of disease outbreaks on crops and livestock, so the sector needs to step up efforts to prevent natural disasters as well as plant and animal diseases.

Processing frozen shrimp for export at a factory of the Thong Thuan Cam Ranh Seafood JSC in Khanh Hoa province. (Photo: VNA)

Besides, global economic and political uncertainties, especially fuel price hikes, will affect the domestic market and strongly drive transportation costs. Credit tightening due to soaring inflation in some countries, China’s enhancement of goods control, and origin fraud charges are also posing challenges to the export of agricultural products, especially timber and wood items, according to the Deputy Minister.

Talking about a growth slowdown in timber and wood product exports, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry Tran Quang Bao pointed to the Russia - Ukraine conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on import markets, adding businesses are striving to seek new markets and boost domestic sales.

However, overseas shipments of wood pellets have surged by 150 - 200%, especially to Japan and the Republic of Korea, which will partly make up for the growth slowdown in total exports. If the August growth pace is maintained, wood product exports will reach 1.3 billion USD each month from now to the year’s end to total 16.3 billion USD in 2022, he said.

Meanwhile, eight-month fishery exports hit 7.59 billion USD. With the current growth trend, if the exports can rake in 800 - 900 million USD monthly, the whole year’s shipments are likely to reach 10 billion USD, said Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries Nguyen Quang Hung./.

VNA