Rice output settles at 34.8 million tonnes in the first nine months of this year, basically flat from a year ago. (Photo: VNA)

Even amid setbacks from storms, floods and livestock disease outbreaks, the sector logged a robust 3.83% expansion over the first nine months, Tien said.

Agro-forestry-fishery exports amassed 52.31 billion USD during that period, a 14% gain year-on-year, while the trade surplus swelled 17.6% to a projected 15.93 billion USD.

Deputy Director of the ministry’s Planning and Finance Department Tran Gia Long noted that rice output had settled at 34.8 million tonnes, basically flat from a year ago.

The pork industry grappled with headwinds from African swine fever outbreaks, even as poultry output advanced steadily on supportive growing conditions and effective disease control. As of late September, the nationwide pig count nosedived 0.6% year-on-year, but pork production bucked the trend with a 4.6% surge to 4.04 million tonnes. The poultry flock expanded 3.7%, lifting meat output 5.6% to 1.93 million tonnes.

Forestry activities, too, delivered upbeat results, with timber harvests up 8.7% to almost 18 million cu.m.

Aquaculture output held steady, bolstered by intensive and super-intensive farming techniques. Overall seafood production for the nine months was pegged at 7.26 million tonnes, up 3.2% annually.

Processing tra fish for export (Photo: VNA)

Phan Quang Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health, said meat, egg and milk production have all increased. The scourge of African swine fever, once a rampant shadow, now lingered in only five provinces, where restocking proceeded to secure sufficient food supplies ahead of year-end holidays.

Heavy rains and flooding, however, had exacted a toll in the northern and north-central regions, ravaging some 96,452 ha of crops. Among the 1.1 million ha of summer-autumn rice in those areas, roughly 40,000 ha were hit by storms, he added.

Harvesting progress varies: the north-central region has wrapped up 87% of its crop and is on track to finish by mid-October, while the northern region has completed 47% and should conclude by month’s end, said Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection Nguyen Quang Hieu.