Exports increase 6.7% so far this year

Of which, the domestic sector contributed US$37 billion, up 5%, and the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) made up US$91.1 billion, up 7.4%. 

However, in September alone, exports plunged 6.8% to an estimated 15 billion USD compared to August due to a turnover reduction in several key export items such as telephones and components (down 17.4% to 506 million USD), footwear (down 18.2% to 200 million USD) and garments (down 7.1% to 175 million USD.)

From January to September, the country spent 125.4 billion USD on imports, surging 1.3% over same period of last year, with the foreign-invested sector making up 74 billion USD and the domestic sector accounting for 51.4 billion USD.

A slight increase seen in both sector’s imports in nine months proved that local production was well on track to recover, the GSO said. 

In the period, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 2.7 billion USD. Unsurprisingly, the foreign-invested sector obtained a trade surplus of 17.1 billion USD while the domestic sector suffered a trade deficit of 14.4 billion USD. 

Agro-forestry-fisheries exports fetched an estimated 2.5 billion USD in September, lifting the total nine-month turnover to 23.3 billion USD, up 6% year-on-year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, agricultural exports during the reviewed period experienced a yearly rise of 7.2% to 11.1 billion USD.

Of this, coffee recorded the highest increase of some 40% in volume and 22% in value compared with same period of last year. Up to 1.39 million tonnes of coffee, valued at 2.48 billion USD, was shipped to overseas markets from January to September.

Pepper came next with 146,000 tonnes for 1.19 billion USD, up 31.5% in volume and 13.1% in value, respectively.

After suffering a temporary downtrend, tea and rubber bounced back, enjoying positive growth of 0.2% and one%, earning 152 million USD and 1.1 billion USD, respectively. 

However, the export of rice, which is a key farm produce in the country, dropped 16.4% in volume and 12.5% in value to 3.76 million tonnes and 1.69 billion USD, respectively. China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese rice with a 35.5% market share, followed by Ghana with 11% and Indonesia with 9.4%. 

In this year’s nine-month period, shipment of seafood products brought home more than 4.9 billion USD, surging 4.3% year-on-year. The US, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea were the four main importers of Vietnamese seafood, making up 53.7% of the total export revenue.

At the same time, forestry exports raked in 5.1 billion USD, equivalent to the value during the same time last year.