Thus, the trade surplus of agriculture, forestry and fishery products reached 6.86 billion USD, 957 million USD higher than the same period last year.

Export growth in 9 months was mainly achieved by increasing the export value of main forest products to 7.93 billion USD, up 18%; Livestock export is estimated 0.53 billion USD, up 8.6% over the same period of last year

The main agricultural product group still dropped sharply by 7.2% to 13.9 billion USD. Seafood is also thecommodity group whose export turnover did not reach the figure as expected. Up to now, seafood export is about 6.23 billion USD, down by 2%.

There are currently 6 groups/products including wood and wood products, coffee, rice, cashew nuts, vegetables and shrimp with export value of each of over 2 billion USD.

Export turnover of agricultural and seafood products decreased due to export prices of many commodities such as coffee, rice, cashew nuts, cassava and products from cassava, shrimp and tra catfish decreased sharply compared to the same period in 2018. Besides, export to some big and important markets also dropped, especially China market dropped by 8%, EU by 6.5%.

In the coming time, global trade is expected to continue to decline, export prices of some key agricultural products are still in a downward trend.

The MARD said that the whole sector will focus on implementing measures to promote trade promotion activities, remove trade barriers, expand export markets and encourage domestic consumption.

The departments under MARD are assigned to research and assess the market overview of some essential commodities such as rice, sugar, seafood, pork and propose solutions to ensure the balance between supply and demand and  market price stabilizations.

The MARD will coordinate and support localities in introducing, promoting, consuming, and promoting trade of local specialty agricultural products. The MARD will organize conferences and forums to discuss solutions in production, processing, and promoting domestic consumption and export.