Agro-forestry

Rice Keeps Agro-forestry Exports At A Healthy Level

HANOI, April 29 (Bernama) -- Agro-forestry and seafood exports reached nearly US$5.2 billion in the first four months of the year, a rise of 5.7 percent against the same period last year, with most of the revenue coming from rice, Vietnam news agency (VNA) reported.

According to the Ministry Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), during this period, Vietnam exported 2.53 million tonnes of rice worth a total US$1.16 billion, an increase of 51 percent in volume and 42.5 percent in value.

The average export price experienced a slight increase to stand at US$456 per tonne.

The Philippines still remains the largest importer of Vietnamese rice, taking 45.4 percent of the country's total exports.

However, other major agro products, such as coffee, tea, cashew nuts and pepper dipped in both export volume and value.

Seafood, one of Vietnam's hard currency earners suffered its first drop in 10 years due to the adverse effects of both the economic recession and bad press in the major markets of Italy, Russia and Egypt.

The sector earned US$300 million in exports in April, bringing the total value of the four-month period to US$1.05 billion, a fall of 8 percent over the same period last year.

As a result, MARD has set the target of US$12.5 billion for agro-forestry and seafood exports for the whole year, a decrease of US$3.7 billion when compared to last year.

Source:BERNAMA,29 April, 2009