Vietnam ’s export turnover to Africa reached 2.6 billion USD in the first seven months of this year, up 172 percent from the same period last year.

The achievement marked Africa as the key market where Vietnam had maintained a trade surplus, reaching nearly 1.88 billion USD in the reviewed period, according to the General Customs Department.

Vietnam ’s exports to Africa posted outstanding value in some markets such as South Africa , rising six-fold over the same period last year to 1.5 billion USD, and Senegal rising three-fold to 154 million USD.

Exports to Egypt and Ghana also saw positive increases, posting 36 percent to 75 million USD and 27 percent to 124 million USD, respectively.

Rice remained Vietnam ’s key export item to the African market, accounting for 25-30 percent of the country’s annual total export rice. Senegal was Vietnam ’s largest rice importer on the African continent, spending 143 million USD. It was followed by Ivory Coast and Ghana with 86 million USD and 56 million USD, respectively.
African countries are expected to import about 9.8 million tonnes of rice from Vietnam for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 2 percent.

In addition to rice, Vietnam’s other export items such as apparel, footwear, seafood, telephone and accessories won firm footholds in the African market./.