Illustration photo.

Of the above figure, export value of agricultural products grew by 8.4 percent to US$13.3 billion, forestry export climbed up 1.3 percent to US$10.4 billion and export turnover of fishery products increased by by 34.2 percent to nearly US$6.7 billion.

The U.S. was the largest importer of Vietnamese farm produce with US$ 8.7 billion, accounting for 26.8 percent of Viet Nam's total agro-forestry-fishery export value. China ranked second with US$5.7 billion (17.8 percent), followed by Japan with US$2.3 billion (7.2 percent) and the RoK with over US$1.5 billion (4.7 percent).

Coffee, rice, shrimp, and furniture were the key export products in the first seven months with combined export turnover of more than US$2 billion.

Despite export growth, agricultural enterprises have been facing challenges. The Russia-Ukraine conflict caused the prices of materials, and logistics costs to increase sharply while the shortage of raw materials has directly affected the export price of goods.

Agricultural and aquatic exports to fussy markets like the EU remain modest while cultivation and harvesting processes are not up to standard, resulting in big losses.

To resolve these problems, the ministry plans to focus on changing farmers' awareness and habits and improve the infrastructure for agricultural and aquaculture production and seafood processing to meet EU's standards.

Reforms, especially related to land and agriculture, and policies and institutions related to science, technology and the Government's management are imperative and will help Viet Nam improve the competitiveness of its farm produce and achieve sustainable agricultural development in the long term.

Viet Nam targets to earn about US$55 billion from exporting agro-forestry-fishery products./.