Agricultural exports up 10% in five months

Of this figure, export turnover of farm products reached US$5.94 billion, up 5.1%, aquatic products, US$2.83 billion, up 25%, and forestry products, US$2.46 billion, up 13.8%.

Export products which saw a significant increase in both volume and value include coffee, pepper, cashew nut, aquatic product and timber.

The first five months witnessed an impressive growth in coffee exports, bringing back US$1.96 billion from selling 966,000 tonnes, up 36.7% in volume and 29% in value.

The country shipped abroad 17,000 tonnes of pepper worth US$126 million in May, increasing its five-month export value to US$645 million.

Cashew nut shipments posted strong growth both in volume and value, 10.8% and 11.5%, respectively.

In particular, the fisheries sector remains a key hard currency earner, bagging US$2.83 billion in five months, a year-on-year rise of 25%.

However, some commodities such as rubber, rice, tea and cassava experienced a drop in export turnover.

Rubber exports saw the steepest reduction of 20.2% in volume and 39.2% in value compared to last year.

Rice exports also faced a sharp decrease, down 10.2% in volume and 7.3% in value from a year ago.