In the first two months, the export value of farm products increased 11% to nearly US$1.5 billion, seafood went up more than 41% to US$628 million, and forest products rose almost 60% to US$617 million.

Rubber, pepper, cashew nuts and tea continued to be Vietnam’s breadwinners posting high growth rates in both volume and value.

The country earned US$241 million from exporting 98,000 tonnes of rubber, year-on-year 136% increases in value and 29% in volume.

Meanwhile, pepper, cashew nuts and tea posted year-on-year increases of 10-47% in volume and 32-58.6% in value.

The volume and value of rice and coffee fell in the first two months. 764,000 tonnes of rice were exported for US$411 million, year-on-year drops of nearly 27% in volume and 12.5% in value. Coffee decreased in volume by 3%, with only 280,000 tonnes sold and an 11% in value to US$394 million.

Vietnam expects to earn US$16 billion from agro-forestry and seafood exports this year compared with last year’s revenues of US$15.4 billion