Vietnam 's agricultural, forestry and fishery industry has overcome both production and business challenges to reach its export value target for the year, experts have said.

The Vietnam Association for Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that the economic crisis in Europe has greatly affected payments to Vietnamese seafood exporters while the price of raw materials related to processing has increased sharply due to low supply.

General Director of the Van Duc Export Food JSC, based in HCM City , said that many seafood exporters have had little orders from Europe due to low demand and the crisis. Therefore, processing factories have been operating moderately to supply the domestic market.

Nguyen Van Ky, general director of the An Giang Import Export Company, said that the price of tra fish had jumped to 28,000-28,500 VND per kilo, forcing his company to cut spending to avoid losses.

Meanwhile, coffee has also faced declines in export price due to impacts associated to the economic situations in Europe and the US , according to the Vietnam Coffee Association.

Pham Quang Dieu, chief economist at Agromonitor, a farming product analysis company, told the online business news website VnEconomy that the export volume of rice will gradually reduce by the end of this year because both exporters and importers have done careful business.

In the short term, Vietnam will face difficulties in exporting rice due to high raw material and export prices, he said.

The current domestic purchase price of rice stood at 7,000 VND per kilo compared to the previous 4,000-5,000 VND while export prices have surged to 570-580 USD per tonne.

In the medium- and long-term, Vietnamese rice will gain advantages based on Thailand having to export rice at high prices and Indian halting rice exports to ensure food security at home, he said.

But the short-term challenges have not hampered Vietnam in hitting its export targets for farming and seafood products this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development predicted.

The ministry expected the farming, forestry and seafood industry to increase to 23 billion USD in export value this year against 19 billion USD last year./.