Vietnam ag exports climb 1.2% despite extreme weather
It has been “a difficult year,” said Nguyen Xuan Cuong, the agriculture minister.
“Extreme weather took place in every quarter,” he said, pointing out that the sector actually contracted in the first six months before recovering in the second half. Last year it grew 2.4 percent, compared to 2014.
Right at the beginning of the year, a historic cold spell hit northern provinces and was followed by the most severe drought in almost a century, which caused losses of VND15 trillion ($669 million) to farmers in the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands.
Despite this, fruit and vegetables, for the first time, overtook rice to become the biggest earner for the sector, with shipments soaring 31 percent to around 2.4 billion. Exports of coffee, cashew nuts and pepper all recorded double-digit increases.
Vietnam’s agriculture sector aims to achieve a growth rate of 2.5-2.8 percent next year. Officials said the country will focus on modernizing farming, after the government agreed to grant loans worth VND60 trillion ($2.6 billion) in total to high-tech projects.
source: agroberichtenbuitenland.nl