Processing Tra fish for export (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Export turnover in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in the first half of 2020 was estimated at 18.81 billion USD, a year-on-year decline of 3.4 percent.
Import turnover, meanwhile, stood at 14.3 million USD, down 6.6 percent.
The sector therefore posted a trade surplus of 4.5 billion USD, up 339 million USD against the same period last year.
Nguyen Van Viet, head of the Planning Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), attributed the results to falling demand and prices for key products in the market and declining export turnover to both China and the US.
The group of main agriculture products earned 8.94 billion USD, down 2.7 percent year-on-year, while turnover for livestock products was estimated at 190 million USD, down 19.4 percent. Main fisheries products recorded an estimated 3.56 billion USD in turnover, down 8.6 percent, while main forestry products raked in 5.3 billion USD, up 2.7 percent.
The country earned 1.6 billion USD, 1.7 billion USD, and 384 million USD from exporting coffee, rice, and vegetables in the period, up 1.2 percent, 18 percent, and 19.5 percent, respectively.
China, the US, Japan, and the Republic of Korea remained the largest importers of Vietnamese agriculture, forestry, and fisheries products, with market shares of 24 percent, 22 percent, 8.8 percent, and 6.1 percent, respectively.
To reach its export turnover target of about 41 billion USD in 2020, Viet said the sector will focus on seeking new markets and maintaining traditional markets, while adopting measures to fully tap into opportunities brought about by free trade agreements as well as enhancing trade promotion activities.
MARD will coordinate closely with other ministries, sectors, and localities in addressing difficulties in trade, customs clearance, and quarantine of agricultural products at official border gates, and strictly control non-quota agricultural product import and export activities, especially with China./.
VNA
