Hanoi (VNA) – Optimising advantages in the marketssigning free trade agreements (FTA) with Vietnam is expected to contribute to boostingVietnam’s export revenue.

In the first five months of this year,agro-forestry-fishery exports hit 15.6 billion USD, a rise of 9.9 percent overthe same period last year. Four leading markets of the products were the US,Japan, China and the Republic of Korea.

But many experts worried that the dependence on somemajor markets will pose high risks to not only agro-forestry-fishery productsbut others produced by Vietnam when fluctuation happens in these markets.

In the January-May period, Vietnam earned 1.45 billionUSD from rice export, up 13.9 percent in volume and 40 percent in value overthe same time in 2017. The top market of Vietnamese rice was China.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Nam, President of the VietnamFood Association, opportunities for Vietnam’s rice export are increasing as theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP) has been signed, creating favourable conditions for the country to sellrice in CPTPP member countries.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, a risewas recorded in export revenue to markets having FTAs with Vietnam in 2017 and itwas maintained in the first half of this year.

In the first five months of 2018, exports to the USreached 17.4 billion USD, a rise of 9 percent year on year.

Although the FTA between Vietnam and the EU has yet totake effective, exports to the market still reached 16.9 billion USD, anincrease of 13.6 percent.

In 2017, Vietnam’s exports to the ASEAN countries alsorose 34.3 percent to 21.7 billion USD, while export revenue in the Chinesemarket was up 60.6 percent to 53.3 billion USD. Strong growth was also seen inthe Japanese market with 14.2 percent, the Republic of Korea with 31.1 percent,Australia, 14.3 percent, Chile, 26.3 percent, and Russia, 35.7 percent.

The Vietnam Food Association predicted that riceexport volume may fetch 6 million tonnes in 2018 with value of about 3 billionUSD due to an increase in exports of high-quality rice.

After earning 8.3 billion USD from exporting aquaticproducts in 2017, Vietnam expects 3-5 percent growth in revenue in 2018 thanksto positive signals stemming from the Chinese, Japanese and RoK markets.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said thatover the past years, export activities have been on right track with theexpansion of many big markets, the reduction in export of unprocessed productsand increase in export of processed ones.

As many as 28 sectors enjoyed export revenues of over1 billion USD, while revenue of over 5 billion USD was recorded in sevenmarkets and 10 billion USD in four markets.

However, the diversification of markets for someagricultural and aquatic products is still limited, while the dependence onAsian markets remains strong. Particularly, some products like cassava, rubberand dragon fruits have still been sold in only one market.

Minister Anh stressed that in the coming time, it isnecessary to reduce the dependence on major markets and remove obstacles forenterprises in terms of tariff technical barrier, food safety requirements, andorigin, while strengthening production-market connection, and setting up thevalue chains.-VNA