Of the figure, around 12.8 billion USD was worth of exports, an increase of 15.3 percent while about 9.8 billion USD was from imports, a decline of 3.5 percent against last year, resulting in a trade surplus of roughly 3 billion USD, up 3.1 times year-on-year.
In March alone, the export value reached over 4.7 million USD, up 6 percent month-on-month and 47.1 percent year-on-year.
In January-March period, exports of major farm produce hit nearly 5.5 billion USD, a rise of 12.8 percent, while that of major forestry products reached about 4.3 billion USD, up 4.4 percent; aquatic products nearly 2.4 billion USD, up 38.7 percent; and animal husbandry roughly 75.6 billion USD, down 22.4 percent.
Products enjoying a rise in export revenue included coffee, rubber, rice, pepper cassava and cassava products, shrimp, tra fish, wood and wooden furniture. Meanwhile, downturn was seen in export value of tea and cashew nuts at 12 and 5 percent.
In the period, Asia remained the largest market for Vietnam's agro-forestry-fisheries products with 40.3 percent of the market share, followed by America and Europe with 29.5 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively.
The US was the biggest consumer of the products with over 3.5 billion USD. China came second with nearly 2.1 billion USD, and Japan third with nearly 872 billion USD.
In order to expand export markets, the MARD will regularly provide information on prices, output, and production and supply of agricultural products as well as suggest solutions to remove the congestion of farm produce at the border gates.
