Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam earned 36.37 billion USD from exporting agro-forestry-aquatic products in 2017, setting a new record for the total turnoverin a year and representing a year-on-year increase of 13 percent, reported theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Of which, the export value of key agricultural products is estimated to reach 18.96billion USD, up 15.7 percent from 2016, while aquatic and major forestryproducts brought home 8.32 billion USD and 7.97 billion USD, up 18 percent and 9.2 percent year-on-year,respectively. 

The country shipped abroad about 5.89 million tonnes of rice worth 2.66 billion USD in theyear, year-on-year increases of 22.4 percent in quality and 23.2 percent invalue, the ministry said.

Strong growth was also recorded in the exportvalue of vegetables and fruit, tea, cashew nut and rubber.

The country raked in 3.45 billion USD fromexporting vegetables and fruits, 40.5 percent higher than 2016. China, Japan,the US and the Republic of Korea were the four leading importers of Vietnamesevegetables and fruits.

Meanwhile, 1.39 million tonnes of rubber worth 2.26 billion USD were shippedabroad, up 11 percent in volume and 35.6 percent in value compared to 2016.

The export of cashew nut saw increases of 1.9percent in volume to 353,000 tonnes and 23.8 percent in value to reach 3.52billion USD.

The export value of teacontributed 229 million USD to the total, an increase of 5.6 percentyear-on-year.

However, the country witnessed a strong decrease of 20.2 percent in volume ofexported coffee resulting in a 3.8 percent reduction in value.

Pepper also suffered from abad year when export prices dropped by 35 percent from 2016. Despite a 20.5percent in export volume, the earnings were down 21.9 percent to 1.12 billionUSD.-VNA