Viet Nam made a trade surplus of US$3.39 billion in the first four months of 2018, in which foreign direct investment (FDI) sector, including fuel, took the lead with $11.17 billion. This was reported by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Meanwhile, the domestic-invested sector experienced a trade deficit of $7.78 billion in the January-April period.

The country’s export turnover increased by 19 per cent year-on-year to $73.76 billion in the first four months of this year, of which the domestic-invested sector reached $20.28 billion, up 17.9 per cent, while FDI sector earned $53.48 billion, rising by 19.4 per cent and occupying 72.5 per cent of the country’s total exports.

According to GSO, the United States remained the largest export market for Viet Nam during the period, with an export turnover of $14 billion, increasing by 12.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. The European Union and China ranked second and third, with $13.2 billion (up 16 per cent) and $10.7 billion (up 29 per cent), respectively.

They were followed by ASEAN countries, Japan and South Korea, with $7.9 billion, $5.8 billion and $5.8 billion, respectively.

In terms of imports, the country spent $70.37 billion to import goods from January to April, up 10.1 per cent year on year. Imports accelerated due to the growth of several commodities, including electronics and computers worth $13.4 billion, up 22.3 per cent; mobile phones and components, which were valued at $4.4 billion, up 9.8 per cent; and petrol and oil worth $2.8 billion, up 31.6 per cent.

China remained the largest import market for Viet Nam, with a turnover of $18.1 billion, increasing by 5.8 per cent year on year. It was followed by South Korea with $15.5 billion (up 7.6 per cent), ASEAN market with $9.9 billion (up 14.5 per cent) and Japan with $5.9 billion (up 16.1 per cent).

Agro-forestry-fishery export rises

During the first four months of the year, the country’s export value of farming, forestry and fishery products reached $12.3 billion, a year-on-year surge of 11.9 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The country raked in $6.5 billion from exports of major agricultural products, $2.4 billion from seafood and $2.7 billion from major forestry products, up 11.9 per cent, 13 per cent and 7.9 per cent against the same time last year, respectively.

The United States (US), Japan, China and South Korea were the top four importing markets for Vietnamese seafood in the first three months of this year, accounting for 52 per cent of total seafood export value. The markets having strong growth in seafood export value included the Netherlands (55.7 per cent), China (44.6 per cent) and the United Kingdom (33.8 per cent).

During the period, the country shipped 2.16 million tonnes of rice abroad, earning $1.1 billion, year-on-year increases of 21.7 per cent in volume and 37.7 per cent in value.

Average export price for rice in the first quarter of this year gained 15 per cent to reach $501 per tonne. China continued to be the largest importer of Vietnamese rice when it purchased 411,600 tonnes, or 29.1 per cent of the rice market share.

Rice export enjoyed strong growth in Indonesia (up 378 times), Iraq (up 16.7 times), Malaysia (up 3.3 times), Ivory Coast (up 67.1 per cent), Ghana (up 57.4 per cent), China’s Hong Kong (up 46.2 per cent) and Singapore (up 24.6 per cent).

In the January-April period, cashew exports experienced sound expansion in terms of both volume and value. Some 103,000 tonnes of cashew were shipped abroad at a value of $1.04 billion, rising 23.1 per cent in quantity and 31.9 per cent in value from the same time last year.

The US, China and the Netherlands remained the three top export markets of Vietnamese cashew. They made up of 34.4 per cent, 13.6 per cent and 13.3 per cent of the market share, respectively.

The export value of vegetables and fruits went up nearly 30 per cent year-on-year to over $1.32 billion in the first four months, including $353.8 million in April.

Earnings from coffee regained a slight rise of 0.4 per cent to $1.3 billion despite an 18.1 per cent increase in volume with 691,000 tonnes. Germany and the US continued to be the two largest export markets of Vietnamese coffee, accounting for 25 per cent of the total export value of coffee.

Meanwhile, the export value of cassava went up 3.2 per cent to $376 million but export volume of this products dropped sharply 24.7 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes in the period.

China was still the largest export market of Vietnamese cassava, accounting for 88 per cent of the total exports.

In a stark contrast, rubber and pepper saw their export values down of 21.4 per cent and 33.2 per cent, respectively.

The ministry estimated that the country splashed $9.5 billion on purchasing foreign agro, forestry and fishery products in the four-month period, growing 11.7 per cent year-on-year. — VNS