The Ministry of Industry and Trade forecasts that export earnings from farm-forestry-aquatic products will face a slight decrease of 6 percent to stand at 12.4 billion USD for the whole year.

However, the ministry still pins much hope on this category of goods in the remaining months of the year, expecting it to help the country achieve its set export goal of 61 billion USD this year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, farm-forestry produce and seafood raked in 11 billion USD in the past nine months of the year--a drop of 12 percent over the same period last year, but each month has seen consecutive rises in profits from rice, tea and cassava.

Rice shipped abroad hit 5 million tonnes in the reviewed period, representing a surge of over 35 percent. However, due to on-going price declines on the world market, the value of this staple stood at only 2.3 billion USD, a 6.4 percent decrease over the corresponding period last year.

The Philippines emerged as Vietnam ’s number one rice importer, accounting for 41 percent of the country’s rice export output. It was followed by Malaysia , bought up 10 percent of the Vietnamese export volume.

Tea was a single product that has steadily risen in both volume and value over the reviewed time. Statistics revealed that 97,000 tonnes of tea was sold abroad in the past nine months for 126 million USD, which reflected increases of 14 percent and 24 percent in value and volume, respectively.

Despite a drop in export value, coffee remained the second largest hard currency earner after rice, with 893,000 tonnes shipped abroad and 1.3 billion USD earned in the past nine months.

Belgium beat out Germany to become Vietnam ’s largest coffee consumption market, purchasing 14 percent of Vietnamese-made coffee beans and products. Germany fell to second place with 11 percent.

In the past nine months, the country sold 489,000 tonnes of rubber latex abroad, netting 732 million USD, while some big rubber exporting countries announced cuts in production output and export volume.

Cassava posted a surprising upswing in value to 473 million USD, doubling the figure recorded in the same period last year. The surge was attributed to high demand for the product on foreign markets for making animal feed and producing bio-energy.

Aquatic products brought home 3 billion USD in export value in the nine months, with 936 million USD coming from shrimp alone.

Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said this group of commodities is likely to receive more orders from importers as they are preparing for the upcoming winter holidays and the world economy is on the path to recovery.

The Japan-Vietnam Economic Partnership Agreement comes into effect on October 1, slashing tariffs on up to 86 percent of Vietnamese farm-forestry-aquatic products, offering exporters of those products a prime opportunity to get a bigger slice of the pie there.

Also the recognition by Spain of Vietnamese tra and basa products as meeting the EU’s food safety requirements and regulations buoyed the hopes of domestic seafood exporters. Spain imports around 40,000 tonnes of the products--the largest amount among European countries./.