(HSV VIETNAM GROUP) - In the past 7 months, Vietnam's trade surplus was 14 billion USD, with the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector alone accounting for 9.4 billion USD, up to 60% over the same period in 2023.
On July 30, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organized a meeting with industry associations to exchange information to promote export activities in the last 6 months of 2024.
Many agricultural products still have wide avenues for export
At the conference, Deputy Chief of Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Viet Binh said that in the first 6 months of this year, the general economic context was still difficult but the agricultural sector still demonstrated its role as a pillar of the economy. Both turnover and export speed have reached record numbers over the past many years. Specifically, exports in the first 6 months of the year reached 29.2 billion USD, up 19% over the same period in 2023. Especially, trade surplus reached nearly 8.3 billion USD, up 62% over the same period last year.
Durian exports grew strongly in the agricultural product group
Updated to July, total export turnover reached nearly 34.3 billion USD, up nearly 19% over the same period in 2023. Trade surplus reached nearly 9.5 billion USD, up 60% over the same period last year. Strong commodities such as vegetables, fruits, coffee, rice, cashew nuts, rubber, wood and wooden products continue to grow well.
"In the second half of 2024, Vietnam's production and export activities continue to face many difficulties and challenges due to the global economic recession affecting export markets, in addition to geopolitical tensions in many regions. However, with the results achieved and the efforts of farmers and the business community, we can believe that export activities will continue to reach many new records," Mr. Binh said.
Citing the above comments, a representative of the Plant Protection Department said that he is actively coordinating with specialized agencies in importing countries to open the market for many Vietnamese agricultural products. Specifically, grapefruit has completed documents to bring goods into the Korean market. This product is also in the process of completing documents for the Indian, Japanese and Australian markets. For passion fruit, completing documents for the US and Australian markets has reached the final stage. Especially for the Chinese market, frozen durian and fresh coconut are also completing their profiles; On the side are seedless avocado and lemon. In addition, we are also negotiating with India to open the way to export durian.
"Negotiation and completion of documents often take a lot of time and each country's procedures are different. However, the number of agricultural products exported by Vietnam will continue to increase to contribute to increasing the industry's turnover in general," said a representative of the Department of Plant Protection.
Which markets still have great potential?
General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association (VINAFRUIT) Dang Phuc Nguyen said that if frozen durian and fresh coconut products were officially exported to the Chinese market, it could bring Vietnam at least 500 million USD per year. With the current situation, it is likely that this year will not be able to reach the figure just mentioned, so the total export turnover of the whole industry only reaches 6.5 - 7 billion USD. However, it will continue to be a new record compared to 2023's figure of 5.6 billion USD.
Mr. Nguyen analyzed: While geopolitical tensions cause many difficulties for the global economy, especially the problem of transporting goods from Asia to Europe, the US and vice versa. But the world context is putting Vietnamese fruits and vegetables at a new advantage. Accordingly, fruit and vegetable exports from European and American countries to Northeast Asia such as Japan, Korea, and China decreased sharply. Because they cannot import goods, these countries increase their purchases of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable products. Specifically, Korea has surpassed the US to become Vietnam's second largest importer of fruits and vegetables after China. In particular, Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports to the US still increased by 33%. Besides Korea, Japan also increased by 13% to 4th place, right behind the US. Or China, in addition to durian, banana exports from Vietnam are leading the supply in this market.
Ha Diem HSV