Agricultural exports in 2024 could reach a record of 60 - 61 billion USD, an increase of 7 - 8 billion USD compared to 2023. Up to this point, many industries have reached the finish line early.

"King of fruits" and rice lead the miracle

Since September, when the early-ripening durian orchards in the Central Highlands entered the peak harvest season, the export of this billion-dollar fruit item officially surpassed the historical export turnover of the whole year 2023, with 2.81 billion USD. Accumulated for 10 months, this figure continued to increase to 3 billion USD and is forecasted to reach 3.3 billion USD for the whole year, an increase of 1 billion USD compared to 2023.

Despite such a feat, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association (VINAFRUIT), still feels regretful because this year the durian harvest in the key Central Highlands region ended early from mid-October, so the turnover decreased significantly. In addition, the off-season durian in the Western provinces also decreased in output due to prolonged unfavorable weather. If the crop season is favorable like previous years, this year's export turnover could reach 3.5 billion USD. "This year, Vietnam's durian exports exceeded expectations while Thailand's only reached about 3.7 billion USD, lower than the expected 4 billion USD due to the damage caused by the heat wave. With the current growth rate and the addition of frozen durian to the list of official export products to China, it is likely that the export of the "king of fruits" can reach 4 billion USD by 2025," Mr. Nguyen commented.

The strong growth of durian helped fruit and vegetable exports in September reach 917 million USD, the highest in history. Not only durian, important items such as bananas, mangoes, jackfruit, coconuts, etc. also grew strongly by double digits and reached a turnover of over 100 - 300 million USD in the past 10 months. Thanks to that, the cumulative export of fruits and vegetables after 9 months reached 5.6 billion USD, equivalent to the whole year of 2023. The export turnover of fruits and vegetables continued to record a miracle with the figure of 6.2 billion USD in 10 months and 6.6 billion USD at the end of November.

Rice exports also only need 10 months to surpass the total turnover of the whole year of 2023. Notably, in 2023, rice exports reached 8.1 million tons with a value of 4.6 billion USD, which was a record. This year, in just 10 months, rice exports reached 4.9 billion USD with only 7.8 million tons of rice thanks to high export rice prices from the beginning of the year. Updates from the General Department of Customs show that in the first 15 days of November, Vietnam's rice exports reached nearly 300,000 tons, bringing the export volume equivalent to the previous year and the value exceeding 5 billion USD. Notably, Vietnamese enterprises are not only exporting rice but are also developing towards rice trade by taking advantage of demand and natural advantages.

According to Mr. Nguyen Vinh Trong, Sales Director of Viet Hung Company Limited (Tien Giang), in the last months of 2024, Vietnam's rice export activities will continue to be favorable due to high demand from traditional markets, especially the Philippines. Export rice prices, especially high-quality fragrant rice, will not be affected when India opens its warehouses because our current output is limited, domestic demand is high, especially in preparation for the peak consumption season at the end of the year.

"Brown gold, black gold" continues to break out

At present, rice and durian are in the "crop gap" period, so production has decreased sharply at the end of the year. On the contrary, coffee has entered the peak harvest season. In particular, prices have skyrocketed, causing export turnover to continue to break out.

Record-breaking rice exports

October marks the start of the new coffee harvest season and the cumulative export volume in the first 10 months reached nearly 1.2 million tons, worth 4.6 billion USD, surpassing the total export value of 2023 by nearly 4.2 billion USD. From mid-2024, many people in the coffee industry believe that the export of "brown gold" will surely reach 5 billion USD. However, no one could have imagined the scenario of the last days of November when coffee prices skyrocketed, around 130,000 VND/kg. The reason was the impact of world coffee prices skyrocketing and surpassing all records. "Basically, supply is still lower than demand, so coffee prices will remain high. However, the future fluctuations will depend on the final decision of Europe on whether to apply the anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) from December 30, 2024 or postpone it for 12 months as previously proposed," said Mr. Do Ha Nam - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Intimex Group Joint Stock Company, and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA).

Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper