Việt Nam's export value of seafood products reached US$4.05 billion in the first six months of this year. Photo nongnghiep.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s agriculture sector gained export growth of agricultural, forest and seafood products in the first six months of this year despite difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of the year, Việt Nam earned US$24.23 billion from exporting agriculture, forestry and seafood products, an increase of 28.2 per cent compared to that of the same period last year.

During this period, the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted material supply chains all over the world and had negative impacts on the production, consumption and exports of farming products.

However, Việt Nam’s agriculture made great efforts to achieve twin goals – ensuring COVID-19 prevention and control and maintaining growth in production and business.

Of which, the export value reached $10.40 billion from major agriculture products, $4.05 billion from seafood products and $8.7 billion from forestry products, a year-on-year increase of 13.3 per cent, 12.5 per cent and 61.5 per cent, respectively.

Key export farming products with growth in both export volume and value included rubber, tea, cashew, cassava and products made from cassava.

Products with higher export value mainly thanks to growth in export volume included timber and wooden products, bamboo products and shrimp.

China, the US, Japan and South Korea were the four major export markets for Vietnamese agricultural products. Of which, the US was the largest export market for Việt Nam's agriculture sector with a total export value of $6.7 billion, mainly from exports of timber and wooden products, a year on year surge of 59.8 per cent.

China was the second largest market with an export value of $4.8 billion, 32 per cent higher than the same period of last year.

Việt Nam’s agriculture sector saw a trade surplus of $3.14 billion in the first half of this year as the country spent about $21.09 billion importing agriculture products.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been causing disruptions in consumption and exports of farming products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has actively boosted farming product exports to markets like Peru and Australia as well as studied free trade agreements (FTAs) to take advantages relating to agriculture product exports, said deputy minister of agriculture and rural development Nguyễn Thành Nam.

The ministry co-operated with Vietnamese embassies and trade offices in countries to exchange market information for having forecasts and analysis in timely manner on market development during and post-COVID-19 pandemic.

Việt Nam also created favourable conditions for Chinese traders to purchase lychee in Việt Nam. It also negotiated with China, Thailand and the EU to boost the exports of fruits and seafood products from Việt Nam.

The ministry followed the production and consumption of farming products nationwide, especially in COVID-19-hit areas.

Besides that, MARD, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and localities have also implemented measures to support farmers and enterprises in consuming agro products amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

They help farmers sell farming produce to supermarket chains like Big C, AEON, Hapro and Vinmart. The farming products are available on e-commerce platforms like Alibaba, Amazon, Sendo, Voso and Shopee, Nam said.

MARD expects the export revenue of agriculture, forestry and seafood products this year to reach about $45 billion, including $21.5 billion from main agriculture products, $14 billion from forestry and wooden products, $8.5 billion from seafood products and about $1 billion from other products.

According to the General Statistics Office, in the first half of this year, the agriculture sector gained a GDP growth of 3.6 per cent in the first six months of this year.

Meanwhile, its agriculture, forestry and fishery production value achieved an increase of 3.84 per cent. VNS