AsemconnectVietnam - Vietnam's export fell in April while industrial output rose modestly in the month from a year earlier, the country's statistics agency said on Saturday, due to declining demand from trading partners and weak growth in the global economy.

Exports fell 17.1% in April from a year earlier, resulting in an 11.8% fall in the first four months of this year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a report, while imports were also down 20.5% in the month and 15.4% in the period.
Rice exports extend growth on high prices
Vietnam's April rice exports doubled in both value and volume to 574 million U.S. dollars and 1.1 million tons due mainly to significant gains in prices and robust demand, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday. The Southeast Asian country posted a 43.6 percent year-on-year increase in its rice shipments in the January-April period to 2.95 million tons, while it recorded a surge of 54.5 percent in export earnings to 1.56 billion dollars in the period, the General Statistics Office said.
The average export price in the four months of the year is estimated at 526 dollars per ton, up 7.6 percent from a year before, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Data showed Vietnamese rice export prices last month expanded at its quickest pace in two years, while Thai and Indian prices grew through half of the month before falling back into contraction at the end of April. Prices of Vietnam's 5-percent broken rice quoted at 495 dollars to 500 dollars per ton in April, up 10 percent from March as buyers continued building up their inventories amid tighter supplies from Vietnam. However, experts forecast a slowdown in purchases by traders on rice price inflation.
The Philippines has remained Vietnam's largest market, accounting for 45.9 percent of the total rice exports after Vietnam earned 450.4 million dollars from shipments of 893,000 tons to the Philippines in the first quarter, a surge of 33 percent in volume and 44.8 percent in value.
Vietnam's seafood exports feel the pinch of global slowdown
The value of Vietnamese seafood exports slumped 28 percent in April from a year earlier to 810 million U.S. dollars due to weakening demand from key markets, Dai Bieu Nhan Dan newspaper reported on Saturday. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said global economic slowdown is taking a toll on Vietnam's seafood exports and rising input prices are weighing on manufacturing activities.
Seafood exports in the first four months of the year plummeted 29 percent from the same period last year to 2.6 billion U.S. dollars, according to the General Statistics Office.
Shipments of shrimps, a key earner, posted a year-on-year plunge of 44 percent in the January-April period to 892 million dollars, tra catfish exports tumbled 46 percent to 598 million dollars, and tuna shipments fell 40 percent to 250 million dollars, the VASEP said in an online statement.
Exports to the United States were the hardest hit by slowing consumption, down 57 percent in the first four months from a year before to 418 million dollars as Americans made spending cuts on essentials like food to cope with sky-high inflation, said Le Hang, head of communications for the VASEP.
Shrimp, which normally accounts for up to 45 percent of Vietnam's total annual seafood exports, faced tougher competition from low-priced, no-brand products, especially in the U.S. market, she added. Seafood exports to China fell 37 percent in the period to 435 million dollars, she said.
The Southeast Asian country has a big challenge to deliver on its seafood export target of 10 billion dollars this year, due to headwinds for its economy and worsening global outlook.
Vietnam's seafood exports last year reach 11 billion dollars for the first time, according to the VASEP.
Coffee exports surge on higher prices, tighter supplies
Vietnam's coffee exports picked up in April after a year-on-year contraction of 2.3 per cent in the first quarter as coffee prices continued to rise on the prospect of tighter global supplies, Vietnam News reported on Thursday (May 4). Coffee exports in April jumped 30.7 per cent to US$474 million, resulting in total export earnings in the first four months of $1.7 billion, up 2.5 per cent from a year ago, according to the General Statistics Office. The country's coffee shipments in the January-April period are estimated to increase 1.8 per cent from a year earlier to 753,000 tonnes, official data showed.
Traders on the London ICE Futures Exchange offered robusta at an average price of $2,564 dollars as of April 24, surging nearly 40 per cent from the beginning of the year, according to the Mercantile Exchange of Vietnam.
T.Huong
Source: Vitic/Reuters