The drop is attributable to falling earnings from some staples such as 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.
The 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 of Vietnam, 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 USD 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.
