Positive signs
In the first half of this year, Vietnam experienced abnormal weather conditions. No sooner had the bird flu epidemic shown some signs of abating than the foot-and-mouth disease appeared in cattle, posing a new challenge to the agricultural sector. In addition, soaring prices of materials had negative impacts on production efficiency.

Despite such difficulties, Vietnam’s agricultural production still reached a growth rate of approximately 4 percent. The consumption market for agro-forestry products is considered one of lucrative markets, which had positively boosted production activities in certain sectors.

Promising signs were seen in both domestic and export markets as the national economy continued to maintain high growth rates and integrate actively into the international market.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the domestic market consumed up to 70 percent of farm produce, including maize, soybean, rice and dairy products. The prices of many agro-forestry products fluctuated in favour of farmers with forms of business becoming more diversified while the development of supermarket systems, coffee and rice trading floors gave a boost to goods exchanges.

In the first half of this year, Vietnam fetched US$3.5 billion in agro-forestry export turnover, an increase of 29 percent from a year earlier. Of the figure, export value of farm products reached US$2.5 billion, up 32 percent and that of forestry products amounted to US$1 billion, up 24 percent. These new growth rates broke the previous record figures achieved by the sector last year.

Among major hard currency earners were rice, coffee, cashew nuts, rubber, and processed wood products, which fetched as much as US$922 million.

While the prices of rice and cashew nuts dropped sharply, export turnovers of coffee, rubber and farm produce kept increasing. Specifically, coffee prices rose by 50 percent and rubber prices by 45 percent against the same period last year.

The EU, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China are regarded as Vietnam’s demanding export markets for coffee and rubber.