Viet Nam’s agro-forestry-aquatic product exports hit over US$19 billion over the first four months of 2024, a year-on-year increase of nearly 24 percent - Photo: VGP/Thuy Dung

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), of the four-month export revenue, farm produce brought home US$11 billion, up 32.5 per cent; animal products US$152 million, up 3.6 per cent; aquatic products US$2.7 billion, up 4.2 per cent; and forestry products US$5 billion, up 23 per cent.

Key farm export items included timber US$4.84 billion, up 23.7 percent; coffee US$2.57 billion, up 57.9 percent; rice US$2.08 billion, up 36.5 percent; cashew US$1.16 billion, up 21.2 percent; and vegetables and fruits US$1.8 billion, up 32.1 percent.

The U.S., China, and Japan remained the biggest markets of agro-forestry-aquatic products from Viet Nam during the four months.

Exports to the U.S. accounted for 20 per cent of the total; China 19 per cent; and Japan 7 per cent, the MARD noted.

Fruit and vegetables, rice, coffee, cashewnuts, and pepper are expected to bring large amounts of hard currency to the national coffers in 2024.

Viet Nam earned US$53 billion from the export of agro-forestry-fishery products in 2023, about US$200 million lower than the 2022 figure, but produced a record high export surplus of US$12 billion, up 43.7 percent year on year, making up 42.5 percent of the country's total trade surplus of the whole year.

There were six items with an export turnover of more than US$3 billion each, namely fruit and vegetables, rice, cashew nuts, coffee, shrimp, wood and wooden products. And these products are anticipated to serve as the backbone of the agricultural sector in 2024./.