Vietnam raked in 109.63 billion USD from exports in the first nine months of the year, moving closer to its 2014 goal of 148 billion USD.

The nine-month figure was 14.2-percent higher than for the same period last year. A total of 73 billion USD was contributed by foreign investors, up 14.1 percent.

Earnings from apparel and mobile phones are expected to top 20 billion USD by the end of the year, reported the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Month-on-month, export revenue fell by 6.6 percent to 12.4 billion USD in September.

However, seafood, pepper, cashew nuts and coffee exports soared by 25 percent while vegetables expanded by 42.7 percent, said the deputy director of the Agency for Foreign Trade, Phan Thi Dieu Ha.

During the nine-month period, African nations became the fastest-growing importers of Vietnamese goods. Egypt and Algeria recorded a plus-50 percent expansion.

African nations bought computers, electronic products and accessories, garments, mobile phones, buses and spare parts, machinery, footwear, construction materials, seafood, coffee and pepper.

Latin America and the Caribbean region were also among Vietnam's major markets, buying 25.22 billion USD worth of goods in the first nine months, an increase of 25 percent for the period.

Chilean importers spent a total of 354 million USD on Vietnamese products - a record 132.9 percent growth that has been credited to the bilateral free-trade agreement signed in January 2014.

In July, Vietnam shipped 250 million USD worth of goods to Chile while spending 203 USD million on imports. The figures have ended Vietnam's long history of running a trade deficit with Chile.-VNA