The country raked in 6.5 billion USD from exports of main agricultural products, 2.4 billion USD from seafood and 2.7 billion USD from main forestry products, up 11.9 percent, 13 percent and 7.9 percent from the same time last year, respectively.

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

Average export price for rice in the first quarter of this year gained 15 percent to reach 501 USD per tonne. China continued to be the largest importer of Vietnamese rice when it purchased 411,600 tonnes, or 29.1 percent 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 percent), Ghana (up 57.4 percent), China’s Hong Kong (up 46.2 percent) and Singapore (up 24.6 percent).

In the January-April period, cashew export 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 USD, rising 23.1 percent in quantity and 31.9 percent in value from the same time last year. 

The US, China and the Netherlands remained three top importers of Vietnamese cashew. They made up of 34.4 percent, 13.6 percent and 13.3 percent of the market share, respectively.

The export value of vegetable went up nearly 30 percent to over 1.32 billion USD in the period.

Earnings from coffee regained a slight rise of 0.4 percent to 1.3 billion USD despite an 18.1 percent increase in volume with 691,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, the export value of cassava went up 3.2 percent to 376 million USD in the period.

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

The ministry estimated that the country splashed out 9.5 billion USD on purchasing foreign agro-forestry-fishery products in the four-month period, growing 11.7 percent from the same months in 2017.