Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese “billion-US dollar” exports items broughthome only 19 billion USD in January, a year-on-year fall of 14.3 percent,according to the latest data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.
The strongest decline was seen in the shipments of garment and textiles (down 21percent to 2.6 billion USD), and telephone and components (down 22.4 percent to2.6 billion USD).
Notably, several agricultural products such as seafood,coffee, cashew, rubber, rice and pepper, among others also experienced a plungein their revenue in the first month of the year.
Nguyen Dinh Tung, General Director of Vina T&T Group - a Vietnamese fruitexporter, said that although his firm has received stable orders, formidablechallenges are ahead as China, a key importer of Vietnamese fruits, hastightened quality norms and demanded origin traceability, making it difficultfor Vietnamese exporters to access the market.
Furthermore, China officially recommended halting trade exchange between its Guangxiand Yunnan provinces and border localities of Vietnam until February 10 as thecoronavirus is spreading.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Foreign Trade Agency said trade flowthrough Vietnam-China border gates will be critically affected by the virusoutbreak; therefore, local businesses should outline measures to have suitablegoods delivery modes, seek new markets or promote consumption domestically.
According to insiders, export revenue of garment and textile, footwear,electronic products dropped in the month due to the week-long Tet holiday.
General Director of May 10 Corporation Than Duc Viet said that despite stableorders for the first half of the year, businesses should stay prudent with themarket instability, pay due attention to consumption trend, while seeking newmarkets so as to realise their export targets.
As for the leather, footwear and handbag sector, thetarget of 24 billion USD in export turnover is achievable for the whole year asmany foreign customers still choose Vietnamese products, according to Chairmanof the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association Nguyen Duc Thuan./.
VNA