According to the latest report of the General Department of Customs on exports and imports in January-June, local exporters shipped US$25.23 billion worth of products in the period, down 8.4% against the same period last year. Major export earners in the period were apparel, seafood, crude oil, wooden products, rice and coffee.

Exports of the local business sector shrank by US$2.31 billion in the the period due to sharp declines in major export products including crude oil, coffee and seafood.

Meanwhile, shipments of FDI enterprises rose by 20.4% to US$52.54 billion. Exports of the FDI sector helped the country’s total exports in the first half of this year go up by 9.3% year-on-year to US$77.77 billion.

The General Department of Customs said Asia was still the biggest export market of Vietnam in the period with US$38.12 billion, followed by America with US$19.72 billion, Europe with US$16.53 billion, Oceania with US$1.74 billion and Africa with US$1.67 billion.

The period saw exports to the United States rising by 19.2% year-on-year to US$15.79 billion, the European Union (EU) by 12.4% to US$14.89 billion, China by 5.2% to US$7.73 billion.

China was the biggest exporter to Vietnam in the period with revenue up 23.2% to US$24.22 billion. Meanwhile, the respective figures were 31% to US$17.73 billion for South Korea and 5.3% and US$11.91 billion for ASEAN.

In the January-June period, Vietnam ran a trade deficit of US$3.07 billion when imports made up US$80.84 billion out of total exports and imports of over US$158.6 billion. Imports rose by 16.7% year-on-year, according to the department.