Agricultural imports rise 23% in Viet Nam

Viet Nam saw a year-on-year increase of 22.6 per cent to US$10.4 billion in the first eight months of this year in imports of material for production and processing and finished products for the farming forestry and seafood industries, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The increase was due to a large surge in the import prices for materials and finished products used by these sectors, the ministry said.

Fertiliser saw the highest increase in import volume and value during the period, the ministry said. Volume surged by 31.1 per cent to 2.6 million tonnes and 64 per cent in value to $1 billion.

Rubber products followed, with the country boosting imports by 40 per cent in volume to 248,000 tonnes and by 56.7 per cent in value to $613 million against the same period last year. The average import price during the eight months jumped by 41.3 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.

The ministry said pesticide imports had a year-on-year surge of 22 per cent in value to $412 million.

Import value for wood and wood products increased by 16.4 per cent to $835 million per cent while the figure was $1.6 billion, equipvalent to 5.8 per cent increase, for animal feed.

Le Ba Lich, chairman of the Viet Nam Animal Feed Association, said the animal feed industry must import a huge volume of material every year for processing at an average value of $3 billion.

Therefore, the price of animal feed was always higher here than in other countries, making it difficult for Viet Nam's livestock industry to compete with similar products made in other countries, Lich said.

Nguyen Van Ky, general secretary of the Viet Nam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said Viet Nam's $181-million import value for fruit and vegetables during the first eight months of the year was irrational because the country imported fruit that was grown in many provinces.

At this time, the State should limit fruit and vegetable imports to products that can be grown in the country in order to reduce the trade deficit, Ky said, highlighting the import of US apples and Chilean bananas.

Pham Tat Thang, an economic expert at the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Institute for Trade Studies, said material and product imports for the farming sector would continue in the near future because most key products in the farming sector, such as fertiliser, had to be imported.

Initially, the farming, forestry and seafood sectors should apply modern measures and technologies to produce high value-added export products to reduce the trade deficit, Thang said.

But for the long term, the farming, forestry and seafood sectors should prioritise the expansion of material production for the domestic processing sector and finished products for local consumption, he said.