Vietnam – Export soars in first 9 months

Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam’s coffee export turnovers gained a year-on-year surge of 85.9 percent, reaching nearly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, partly due to higher world prices, according to the country’s General Statistics Office on Tuesday.

During the nine-month period, the country shipped abroad 975, 000 tons of coffee, mainly to the European Union, the United States, Japan and Singapore, up 44.2 percent.

Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee exporter after Brazil, is diversifying coffee products for export, partaking more actively in international coffee trading floors, and applying more advanced farming and processing techniques.

The country exported 897,000 tons of coffee totalling 1.1 billion dollars in 2006, posting respective increases of 0.5 percent and 49.9 percent against 2005.

Vietnam is expected to produce 920,000 tons of coffee beans in 2010, up from estimated 767,700 tons in 2007, of which 800,000 tons valued at over 1 billion U.S. dollars will be exported, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.