Vietnam's major farm produce export drops in 2 months

HANOI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- VIETNAM's export turnovers of key agricultural products including rice, coffee, cashew nuts and pepper fell in the first two months of this Year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Monday.

Specifically, VIETNAM exported 788,000 tons of rice worth 335 million U.S. dollars, down 4.9 percent in volume and 17.5 percent in value against the same period last Year. Its largest rice importer was the Philippines.

VIETNAM raked in 500 million U.S. dollars from exporting 284,000 tons of coffee between January and February, posting Year-on-Year respective declines of 26.9 percent and 19.6 percent. The country also earned 371 million U.S. dollars from selling cashew nuts and 92 million U.S. dollars from selling pepper overseas, down 21 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively.

According to local experts, the decreasing world prices lowered VIETNAM's export turnovers of key agricultural products.

VIETNAM targets to expand its agricultural product export to over 43 billion U.S. dollars this Year, up from 40 billion U.S. dollars last Year. The country is striving to become one of the world's top 15 farming powerhouses in the next 10 Years, the government said said in January.