Agricultural, forestry and fishery exports hit 'record' level of 32.1 billion USD

In 2016, the GDP growth rate of the whole industry reached about 1.2%; production value increased by 1.44%. The export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products for the whole year is estimated at 32.1 billion USD, an increase of 1.7 billion USD compared to 2015.

Shrimp export. Photo source: Internet

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan - Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said: "In the first 6 months of the year, shrimp output has not reached 200,000 tons. However, from June onwards, the fisheries industry has focused on promoting the farming of white-leg shrimp and black tiger shrimp, so the output has skyrocketed to 650,000 tons in the last 6 months of the year, the farming area has also been expanded to 700,000 hectares. Thanks to that, shrimp exports this year are estimated to reach 3.2 billion USD, tra fish also improved thanks to prices and reached an export value of over 1.7 billion USD. In general, the entire fisheries industry's export value reached about 7 billion USD".

Meanwhile, livestock farming is also considered an industry that has "exploded" this year, with the total pig herd increasing to 29.1 million and the poultry herd increasing to 364.5 million.

Mr. Hoang Thanh Van, Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said: "In the past year, our country exported 600,000 tons of live pigs to China with a value of more than 1 billion USD, but this export is still not sustainable because we mainly export through unofficial channels. Therefore, if we do it fundamentally, the livestock industry alone can ensure the export of up to 2 million tons of pigs to this market."

Thanks to proactive, creative and drastic solutions in recovering from natural disasters, promoting production and trading of products with market advantages and competitiveness such as vegetables, shrimp, livestock..., the export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products has increased sharply, estimated at 32.1 billion USD for the whole year, an increase of 1.7 billion USD compared to 2015; the trade surplus reached about 7.5 billion USD.

In particular, 2016 marked a remarkable development in fruit and vegetable exports. For the first time, the export turnover of this item "surpassed rice", reaching 2.4 billion USD, an increase of 31.2% compared to 2015. Many items had high export turnover such as coffee increased by 25.5%, cashew nuts increased by 18.3%, pepper increased by 12.7%, seafood increased by 6.3%... and we still maintained 10 items with export turnover of 1.0 billion USD or more.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Information Portal