The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that apart from these items, five other export items also exceeded US$1 billion in revenue including rubber (amounting to US$2.86 billion), Tra fish, shrimp, cashew, cassava and cassava products. Several exports soared in revenue such as coffee (increasing 36 percent), cassava and derivative products (40.6 percent), fruits and vegetables (29 percent) and tea (11.5 percent).

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry said that as the export and domestic markets had faced huge difficulties, trade promotion in the areas of agriculture, forestry and fisheries had focused on expanding and diversifying export markets, particularly traditional markets like the US, the EU and Japan to contribute to boosting domestic sales and exports.

Market information and predictions were also improved from 2011-2012 providing a basis for application of timely and sound policies. Foreign trade promotion activities were also boosted including opening a booth at an exhibition in May 2012 in the US and September 2012 in Russia, while market surveys were carried out in several new markets including the Middle East, Cambodia and the Republic of Korea. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry also worked with the Department for Agriculture-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Control to break down technical barriers in export markets and seriously resolve Vietnamese export batches that had faced difficulties in the EU, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

Vietnam would continue facing difficulties in 2013 and future years due to slow economic recovery across the world and increasing requirements among major export markets, regarding the quality, safety and hygiene of food and environmental protection.

To overcome the challenges, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry said that it would concentrate its forces on market information to ensure businesses and producers kept abreast of changes in the market and to give timely and proper directions. In addition, to ensure stable production and boost exports the department proposed that related agencies address false information about Vietnamese agricultural products and break down technical barriers in export markets, while checking the safety and hygiene of animal imports into Vietnam.

Apart from developing rural occupations under the National Target Program on Rural Development, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry said that it had drawn-up a plan for implementing the 2013 trade promotion program in order for farmers, medium to small enterprises and customers in foreign countries to gain more information about the Vietnamese agriculture-forestry-fishery market.

This year the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Products Processing and Salt Industry would direct the trial enforcement of a regulation on temporary rice reserve in direct support of rice farmers in several Mekong Delta provinces. The department would also continue directing the projects to store four million tonnes of rice in the Mekong Delta, survey agriculture-forestry-fishery processing and preservation, examine tea production, processing and sales and propose to increase the added value of the tea industry./.