Farming industry brings home over 7 billion USD in trade surplus

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Agro-forestry-fishery recorded a trade surplus of 7.09 billion USD in 2015, despite a slight reduction in export revenue.

This year, the sector exported 30.14 billion USD worth of commodities, a mere annual decrease of 0.8 percent. Its import value, meanwhile, was estimated at 23.05 billion USD, up 5.5 percent year on year.

Cashew and peppercorns enjoyed higher selling prices compared to that of 2014.

Vietnam sold 328,000 tonnes of cashew nuts abroad, reeling in 2.4 billion USD. The quantity grew just 8.3 percent annually, but the value extended by 20.2 percent.

Likewise, peppercorn exports were dropped to approximately 135,000 tonnes, however, marked a five-percent revenue gain, with the total revenue reaching 1.26 billion USD.

However, some major farming produce, such as coffee, rubber and rice, experienced falling prices in foreign markets.

According to Nguyen Nam Hai, General Director of the Vietnam National Coffee Association, coffee suffered highly volatile prices, which were high in the beginning of the year and had continuously fallen since. Vietnam exported 1.28 million tonnes coffee, earning 2.54 billion USD, down 24.6 percent in quantity and 28.1 percent in value.

Rubber price has followed a downward trend in recent years without a signal of recovery.

Rice exports recorded a higher volume at almost 6.7 million tonnes; however, falling prices caused a 2.9-percent dent in its revenue from last year.

Aquatic products generated 6.52 billion USD, down 16.5 percent year on year. The fall was due to significant value decreases in major markets like the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea.-VNA