Vietnam’s agro-forestry and fisheries exports in June reached 2.2 billion USD, pushing the six-month results to 14.67 billion USD, a rise of 11.2 percent over the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Strongest growth was seen in pepper export, with 111,000 tonnes shipped abroad for 790 million VND, up 36.2 percent in volume and 47.8 percent in value.

Vietnamese pepper was mainly exported to the US , Singapore , the UAE, India and Spain . Notably, the amount of pepper consumed by Spain was five times higher than that in the same time in 2013.

The wood processing sector also enjoyed a 17.5 percent rise with 130,000 tonnes, earning 829 million USD, up 19.5 percent.

Meanwhile, aquatic exports brought home 3.45 billion USD, up 24 percent year on year. While the US remained the largest markets for Vietnam’s aquatic products, major markets such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and China also recorded strong growth.

A total of 130,000 tonnes of cashew nuts were exported in the reviewed period for 829 million USD, representing increases of 17.5 percent and 19.5 percent in volume and value, respectively.

With a 32 percent increase in volume to 1.04 million tonnes, coffee export earned 2.12 billion USD compared to 1.71 billion USD of the same period last year, despite a 6 percent drop in price.

However, falls in both volume and value were seen in the export of rice, rubber, tea and cassava products.

Rice export experienced decreases of 9.9 percent in volume and 8 percent in value with 3.2 million tonnes and 1.44 billion USD. It is notable that the Philippines emerged as the second largest importer of Vietnam’s rice after China.

At the same time, the rubber sector also suffered from a 29 percent fall in volume and a 33 percent decrease in value with only 337,000 tonnes shipped for 644 million USD.

In the first half of this year, Vietnam exported 57,000 tonnes of tea for only 92 million USD, down 6.6 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, while the figures for cassava export were 1.8 million tonnes and 569 million USD, dropping 13 percent in both volume and value.-VNA