Two-way trade between Vietnam and Brazil reached 675.158 million USD in the first quarter this year, a year-on-year increase of nearly 42 percent, according to statistics from Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

In the reviewed period, Vietnam exported to the Latin American country 379.7 million USD worth of goods and imported commodities valued 295.4 million USD, up 48.6 percent and 34.2 percent, respectively.

Major currency earners of Vietnam were telephone, footwear, frozen fish fillet, computer and electronic products.

Meanwhile, the country mainly bought from Brazil maize, soybean, tobacco, cotton, footwear materials, and scrap steel.

The surge was recorded despite the fact that Brazil experienced a year-on-year drop of 1.48 percent to 105.4 billion USD in foreign trade in the first quarter.

Statistics from the ministry also showed that last year, two-way trade between the two countries hit 2.33 billion USD, a sharp rise of 42.3 percent over 2012. This was the first time the figure exceeded 2 billion USD, maintaining Brazil’s position as Vietnam’s largest trade partner in the Latin American region.-VNA