A report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) showed that Vietnam’s export turnover of agriculture, forestry and seafood products reached $24.59 billion in the first half of the year, down 11.1 percent compared with the first half of 2022.

China, the US and Japan remained the three biggest export markets for Vietnam’s farm produce. 

Exports to the US dropped by 32.9 percent and to Japan 5.3 percent, which accounted for 20.2 percent and 7.7 percent of total agricultural export turnover, respectively, in the first six months. 

Meanwhile, export value to China increased by 7.7 percent, accounting for 21 percent of total turnover. China was also the only client that had a positive growth rate among key export markets.

The country spent nearly $1.77 billion to buy Vietnam’s veggies and fruits, up 120.7 percent. Veggies and fruits accounted for 65.8 percent of farm exports to China in the first half of 2023.

The product that got the second highest export turnover was rubber, $778.9 million, followed by woodwork with $706.6 million, seafood with $634.4 million, cassava and cassava-made products $522.9 million. 

However, the products all saw minus growth rates in the first half: - 13.3 percent, - 25.4 percent, - 23.4 percent and - 23.9 percent, respectively.

However, China remains the biggest consumer of Vietnam’s seafood, importing 17 percent of Vietnam’s seafood export turnover. It consumed 88 percent of Vietnam’s total cassava export turnover.

The country also bought rice, coffee and cashew nuts from Vietnam in large quantities: $390.6 million of rice (+ 71.2 percent), $259 million in cashew nuts (+ 43.1 percent), and $71.4 million in coffee (+ 9.3 percent).

According to experts in the context of the global high inflation in 2023, China is likely to be the largest market for Vietnam thanks to the demand boom, geographical position, lower logistics costs and risks. The Chinese market is believed to be the factor that helps the agricultural sector fulfill the plan to export $54-55 billion worth of farm produce this year.

In the first half of 2023, China mainly ordered veggies and fruits, rice, coffee and cashew nuts from Vietnam. The orders for fruits have boomed after protocols on full-tax export were signed. 

Tam An