In 2010, exports are estimated to hit US$71.6 billion, an increase of 25.5 percent over 2009 and imports reached US$84 billion, up by 20 percent. Thus exports and imports set new records while trade deficit was reduced by 5.2 percent compared to 2009.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Thanh Bien says imports and exports increased by US$10 billion compared to the plan for 2010 and trade deficit fulfilled the target of below 20 percent of total export value.

Impressive December

After fulfilling the import-export target in November, foreign trade continued to grow in December. Exports rose by 6.9 percent compared to November to US$7.1 billion. Thus exports hit a record high that month and increased by 29.9 percent compared to the same period last year. Products with the highest growth include rubber (up by 92.8 percent), cashew nut (up by 50.7 percent) and rice (up by 42.4 percent).

The trend is not different from previous years. As export companies wish to fulfill their controls, December often sees high export growth of light industrial products, the assembling industry, some agricultural products and input materials. Vice versa imports of input materials and some consumer products also increases sharply in the remaining months.

Exports hit US$71.6 billion

Exports in 2010 reached US$71.6 billion, up by 25.5 percent compared to 2009. The FDI sector accounted for more than half of the impressive figure.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Vietnam’s exports recovered quickly in 2010, excluding gold trade. In the past eight months, monthly exports hit US$6-7 billion while monthly imports reached 7-8.5 billion. The country’s foreign trade reached a new capacity which is much higher than in previous years.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Thanh Bien, says five new products have the export value of more than US$1 billion this year, increasing the number of products with more than US$1 billion export value to 18. They are cashew nuts, petroleum, plastic products, cable and electric wires and means of transportation.

Increased export volume of many products and the expanding export scale helps maintain sustainable growth. Increase in export volume of industrial products compensates for strong decline in that of minerals.

This is the first year garment exports yielded US$11.2 billion, ranking first among 26 major export items, followed by footwear with US$5.1 billion and seafood with US$4.9 billion.

Key export products were still equipment, input materials, minerals, light industrial products and agricultural products. However, their added values are low.

At the end of November, the US remained the Vietnam’s biggest export market with estimated value of US$12.8 billion, accounting for 17.9 percent of the total value and up by 25.4 percent over the same period last year. Key export items to the US market were garments, wood and timer products, footwear and seafood.

Exports to the EU reached US$10 billion, accounting for 13.9 percent of the total value and up by 15 percent with main items, including footwear (US$2 billion), garments (US$1.64 billion), seafood (US$1 billion) and wood and timber products (US$594 million).

Exports to ASEAN hit US$9.3 billion, making up 13 percent, and up by 19.6 percent with rice (US$1.5 billion), crude oil (US$1.4 billion) and petroleum (US$653 million).

These were followed by Japan with US$6.9 billion (accounting for 9.6 percent and up by 23.6 percent) and China with US$6.3 billion (accounting for 8.8 percent and up by 48.6 percent).

Agriculture, forestry and seafood exports reach US$19.2 billion

In 2010, Vietnam continued to rank first in the world in exporting cashew nuts and black pepper, second in exporting rice and third in exporting natural rubber.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) estimates that the total agriculture, forestry and seafood exports reached nearly US$19.2 billion, an increase by 22.6 percent over 2009. Meanwhile the total imports are estimated to be US$11.9 billion, up by 25 percent, thus the agricultural sector’s export surplus was around US$7.3 billion.

The sector’s outstanding performance was attributed to many key export products.

Rice exports were record high in both volume and value. Vietnam exported 6.88 million tonnes, earning US$3.23 billion, up by 15.4 percent in volume and by 21.2 percent in value. Average export price was US$468 per tonne, up by 5.02 percent compared to last year.

In 2010, Indonesia’s rice imports rose sharply by 24 times in volume and 30 times in value compared to 2009. It became Vietnam’s third biggest rice importer, after the Philippines and Africa.

Despite continuous difficulties, the fisheries sector overcame challenges and expanded to many new markets. The sector is estimated to earn nearly US$5 billion, up by 16.3 percent compared to 2009.

Shrimp contributed a large part to the outstanding figure. According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors, (VASEP), Vietnam exported 220,000 tonnes of shrimp, earning US$1.8 billion – the biggest figure so far.

This was followed by tra fish. The country exported around 650,000 tonnes of tra fish and is expected to ship around 800,000 tonnes per year in the next five years. In addition, exports of tuna, molluse and crustacean also saw high increases.

Rubber exports increased by nearly 90 percent to reach US$2.32 billion. The price of rubber also rose constantly. Consumption power of major markets, excluding China, grew strongly. For example in India it increases three times in volume and seven times in value.

2010 was the first year cashew nuts’ exports earned US$1 billion. The figure helped Vietnam maintain the world’s biggest cashew nut exporter for four consecutive years.

The MARD estimated that fish exports in 2010 were 196,000 tonnes, earning US$1.14 billion, up by 10.8 percent in volume and 34.8 percent in value. The US still led among Vietnam’s cashew nut importers with proportion of 32.6 percent. With favourable conditions, the sector aims to earn US$1.5 billion from exports in 2011, up by 32 percent in value.

Wood and timber exports increased by 31.2 percent to hit US$3.4 billion, far surpassing the target of US$3 billion. Three major import markets were the US, Japan and China which accounted for 66.3 percent of the total value.

According to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Vietforest), the world demand for Vietnamese wood and timber products in 2011 will be huge. It will earn around US$4.1-4.2 billion, up by 30 percent compared to 2010.

Vietforest Vice chairman, Nguyen Ton Quyen, says that the sector must achieve a growth rate of 35 percent in the next years to fulfill its export target of US$7 billion in 2020.

Coffee exports did not grow as much as other agricultural products. The country exported only around 1.1 million tonnes and earned US$1.67 billion, down by 5 percent in volume and nearly by 4 percent in value.

Trade deficit fulfills target

 Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien says trade deficit reached US$12.3 billion, equivalent to 17.3 percent of total export, reaching the Government’s target of below 20 percent.

Imports in December were estimated to reach US$8.5 billion, up by 7 percent compared to November, because the average price of many products had increased. Imports in 2010 were US$84 billion, up by 20.1 percent over 2009, including US$47.5 billion from the domestic sector, up by 8.3 percent and US$36.5 percent from foreign invested sector, up by 39.9 percent.

Imports of completely built up (CBU) automobiles and motorbikes as well as petroleum fell as the Dung Quat Oil Refinery Plant began its operation in 2010.

China remains the biggest importer of Vietnamese products, which are mainly machinery, equipment, computers and component, steel and petroleum. By the end of November, China’s imports were worth US$17.9 billion, up by 23.4 percent over the same period of 2009.

VOV