South Africa remains Vietnam’s biggest trade partner in Africa
South Africa retained its top position among African trade partners of Vietnam in 2018, with bilateral trade topping 1.1 billion USD, up 11.7 percent from 2017 and accounting for 16 percent of total trade between Vietnam and African countries.
Coffee is among Vietnam's top exports to the South African market. (Photo: VNA)
Pretoria (VNA) –South Africa retained its top position among African trade partners of Vietnamin 2018, with bilateral trade topping 1.1 billion USD, up 11.7 percent from2017 and accounting for 16 percent of total trade between Vietnam and Africancountries.
According to statistics ofthe Vietnamese trade office in South Africa, Vietnam shipped 724.3 million USDworth of goods to South Africa, down 3.7 percent year on year, but its importsfrom the country surged 59.5 percent to 386.4 million USD.
The office’s head Dao ManhDuc attributed the drop in Vietnam’s exports to falling shipments and value ofmobile phones and parts by foreign-invested enterprises in the country. As thebiggest staple in Vietnam’s exports to South Africa, those products broughthome only 227 million USD in 2018, down 22.2 percent.
Footwear andcomputer-electronic goods are two other main items in Vietnam’s export to SouthAfrica, earning 108.8 million USD and 96.2 million USD, respectively, lastyear.
It is noteworthy that coffeeshipment value saw an impressive increase of 108.4 percent last year to 17.3million USD. However, pepper suffered a decrease of 37 percent to 9.2 millionUSD.
The big increase in Vietnam’simports from South Africa was driven by a 46.9 percent growth in fruit andvegetables and a 35.5 percent rise in wood and wood products.
Meanwhile, metal, the mainitem in Vietnam’s imports from South Africa, saw a drop of 3.3 percent in valueto 89.7 million USD
Vietnam’s purchase of metal,machinery-tools and steel products fell significantly, with decreases of 88.2percent and 40 percent, respectively.
Following South Africa,Egypt is the second largest trade partner of Vietnam in Africa, with bilateraltrade going up 36.6 percent in 2018 to 439 million USD.
Vietnam’s trade with 53 outof 55 African countries was estimated at 6.6 billion USD in 2018, with exportvalue approximating 3 billion USD, up 10 percent year on year, according to statisticsof the Department of Asian-African Markets under the Vietnamese Ministry ofIndustry and Trade.-VNA
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Coffee is among Vietnam's top exports to the South African market. (Photo: VNA) 
