Worried about a significant drop in agricultural exports, the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development has decided to establish a steeringcommittee that will gather information on problems faced by traders andidentify possible solutions.

The ministry's personnel departmenthas been asked to set up a permanent office of the committee thismonth. The committee will collect regular feedback on obstacles as wellas recommendations from traders of farming, seafood and forestryproducts, Minister Cao Duc Phat said at a recent meeting that broughttogether associations in the three industries.

He saidestablishing the committee is one of the urgent measures being taken todeal with export challenges that the sector has faced in the firstquarter of this year.

Vietnam’s export revenue fromagro-forestry-fishery products in the first three months of this yearwas estimated at 6.13 billion USD, a 13.2 percent decrease from thefigure recorded in the same period during 2014.

Of the totalfigure, farm produce exports were valued at 2.92 billion USD, down 15.1percent; seafood exports generated 1.27 billion USD, an annualdecline of 20.6 percent; and forestry product exports brought home 1.5billion USD, a drop of 0.4 percent, according to the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development.-VNA