By the end of October Vietnam had earned only 13.7 billion USD from agricultural, forestry and aquatic exports, down 8.9 percent from the same period last year despite considerable larger volumes.

The drop is mainly due to a fall in the export prices of these products on the world market, which is a direct result of the global economic crisis.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development report that export earnings from forestry products posted the largest fall of 14 percent from a year ago to 2.1 billion USD, followed by farm produce, 10.4 percent and 6.6 billion USD; and aquatic products, 9.6 percent and 3.5 billion USD.

The export volume and value of agricultural and forestry products moved in opposite directions during the January-October period.

Rice exports rose by over 33 percent to nearly 5.4 million tonnes but its export value fell by nearly 7.7 percent to nearly 2.4 billion USD.

Other farm produce was in same boat. Noteworthy was coffee - the country’s second biggest currency earner after rice in the agricultural sector – which saw a drop of 17 percent in value but an increase of nearly 17 percent in volume.

Rubber exports in this period plunged 61 percent to 840 million USD. Even when rubber price is rising towards the end of the year, total rubber export value is expected to top 1 billion USD for this year, 600 million USD less than last year’s figure.

However, tea, pepper and cassava exports have seen rises both in volume and value. Tea posted the highest increase of all, reaching 11,000 tonnes in volume, tonnes in volume, up 23 percent and 145 million USD in value, up nearly 15 percent year on year. Vietnam exports tea to 110 countries and territories worldwide and is ranked as one of the world’s top five tea exporters.

In terms of seafood exports, reductions in the export value to traditional seafood markets including Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US has pulled down the country’s total export turnover from seafood by 9.6 percent to nearly 3.5 billion USD.

Imports of materials that serve the production and processing of agricultural, forestry and aquatic exports including fertilisers, pesticides, timber and animal foodstuffs, had by the end of October, dropped 8 percent to 8.4 billion USD./.