According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports dropped 0.6 percent year-on-year to US$3.5 billion in the first 11 months this year.
The drop was attributed to falling earnings from dragon fruit, which accounted for 31 percent of total fruit exports, (down 9 percent), durian (down 17.4 percent), coconut (down 35 percent), longan (down 56 percent) and watermelon (down 26.4 percent).
MARD’s Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department said the strong decrease in exports to China, which accounted for 66.8 percent of all fruit and vegetable exports, was also a reason behind the fall.
The rise in exports to the US, the European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea was not enough to compensate for the reduction in the Chinese market.
In the same period, $1.63 billion was spent on importing fruit and vegetables, up 3.4 percent from the same period last year. Imports from Thailand, still the biggest import market of Vietnam, went down 24.5 percent, while those from China picked up 10 percent and from the US up 54 percent.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s report on exports in the first 11 months of this year, many other key products had dropped in export value due to difficulties.
Source: vietnamnews.vn
