A slowdown in exports of some key items means the year’s export target of US$48 billion could be missed, a routine trade ministry meeting Tuesday heard. Pham The Dung, head of the Ministry of Trade’s Export-Import Department, said as a result the export sector faced a heavy burden in the second half.
As the country’s number one export turnover earner, crude oil plunged by 5 percent to $3.8 billion.
Oil industry insiders attributed the slip to declining global prices and lower than expected output by certain overseas operations.
Rice exports fell by 5 percent to $732 million. Huynh Minh Hue, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Food Association, said a shortfall in cargo services and a 40 percent hike in transport costs had pushed exports down.
As a result, shipments to some key markets like Russia, Cuba, and South Africa had plunged by 75 percent, 67 percent, and 58 percent respectively.
Footwear exports fetched $1.9 billion, a year-on-year rise of 11 percent against a targeted rise of 21 percent.
This was mainly due to anti-dumping duties slapped by the EU which buys 80 percent of Vietnamese footwear exports.
Exporters failed to address the problem by finding alternate markets.
However, despite the problems, the country‘s exports jumped by 20 percent in the first half to $22.5 billion.
Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Tinh Bien warned that nothing less than a massive effort would do to reach the export target.
The coffee, apparel, and seafood industries were on track to achieve their targets, especially apparel, which could reach its $7.3 - 7.5 billion goal.
A push was required to ensure fisheries, another important export item, achieved its export target.
The government had agreed to provide VND50 billion to set up facilities to test fisheries products to ensure they were free of banned chemical substances.
Van Thanh Huy, chairman of the Vietnam Coffee Association, said coffee exports had already achieved 92 percent of the whole year’s target with revenues of $1.5 billion so far.
But he was worried that the low coffee quality could hurt the goal.
A Ho Chi Minh City-based coffee trader admitted that Vietnamese coffee had 1 percent impurities compared to 0.5 percent elsewhere.
Exports are expected to maintain robust growth, helped by Vietnam's membership in the WTO. The country’s ambitious export goal is to reach a whopping $100 billion in export value by 2010, according to the Ministry of Trade.
The nation’s four giant exporting markets now are the EU, the US, Japan and China.
Trade officials said exports to the US were forecast to rise 35 percent from last year to nearly $11 billion in total this year while revenues from goods sold to Europe would jump 22 percent to $8.3 billion by the year’s end.
Source: Reuters
Showing posts with label Coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coffee. Show all posts
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Vietnam may import coffee materials
Vietnam, which is the biggest Robusta exporter in the world, is now considering importing materials for re-export.
At this moment, the storehouses of Vietnamese coffee exporters are all empty. They have exported all the coffee products they had after signing a lot of contracts when the harvest ended. They wish they had not exported all the products, because they would reap more if they exported at this moment, when the price is escalating.
Right at the end of 2006, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) advised its member companies not to export coffee in large quantities and not to sign contracts with the delivery time too far from the contract signing time, in order to avoid possible risks due to price fluctuations. Vicofa anticipated that the coffee output would decrease this year, while the demand would be increasingly high.
Vietnam is the nation with the biggest Robusta growing area, 500,000 ha, which can provide the yield of 750-800,000 tonnes. Most of Vietnam’s coffee has been exported as raw material, which cannot bring high profit. Now, with the world’s price increasing, Vietnam has no more coffee to sell.
Since 2002, the Robusta price has tripled in the world, and is now staying at the highest peak since 1998. The coffee price has increased sharply due to decreased supplies from the biggest producers, who have lower output as a result of bad weather, while the demand is increasing sharply in Europe.
Analysts said that in general, the price would keep rising because the supply remains short.
As their stocks have run out, Vietnamese enterprises are now thinking of importing coffee material, and if they do that, they will have to buy coffee at a high price (as the world’s price is increasing).
The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said that the world’s coffee output for the 2007/2008 crop would be 6-8mil bags (60kg/bag) lower than the consumption level, surely making the price increase further.
Meanwhile, the Robusta output of Vietnam in 2007/2008 is expected to increase by 30%, or 780-950,000 tonnes, as the coffee plant has recovered from the drought eight years ago.
According to Vicofa, in order to take full advantage of being the leading Robusta exporter, a lot of things still need to be done, including developing the material area, expanding trade and the drawing up of a market strategy.
Vicofa said that it was very necessary to have coffee in reserve. Brazil, for example, the leading coffee producer, buys coffee for reserve every year to sell when the price is high.
Source: VNE
At this moment, the storehouses of Vietnamese coffee exporters are all empty. They have exported all the coffee products they had after signing a lot of contracts when the harvest ended. They wish they had not exported all the products, because they would reap more if they exported at this moment, when the price is escalating.
Right at the end of 2006, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) advised its member companies not to export coffee in large quantities and not to sign contracts with the delivery time too far from the contract signing time, in order to avoid possible risks due to price fluctuations. Vicofa anticipated that the coffee output would decrease this year, while the demand would be increasingly high.
Vietnam is the nation with the biggest Robusta growing area, 500,000 ha, which can provide the yield of 750-800,000 tonnes. Most of Vietnam’s coffee has been exported as raw material, which cannot bring high profit. Now, with the world’s price increasing, Vietnam has no more coffee to sell.
Since 2002, the Robusta price has tripled in the world, and is now staying at the highest peak since 1998. The coffee price has increased sharply due to decreased supplies from the biggest producers, who have lower output as a result of bad weather, while the demand is increasing sharply in Europe.
Analysts said that in general, the price would keep rising because the supply remains short.
As their stocks have run out, Vietnamese enterprises are now thinking of importing coffee material, and if they do that, they will have to buy coffee at a high price (as the world’s price is increasing).
The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said that the world’s coffee output for the 2007/2008 crop would be 6-8mil bags (60kg/bag) lower than the consumption level, surely making the price increase further.
Meanwhile, the Robusta output of Vietnam in 2007/2008 is expected to increase by 30%, or 780-950,000 tonnes, as the coffee plant has recovered from the drought eight years ago.
According to Vicofa, in order to take full advantage of being the leading Robusta exporter, a lot of things still need to be done, including developing the material area, expanding trade and the drawing up of a market strategy.
Vicofa said that it was very necessary to have coffee in reserve. Brazil, for example, the leading coffee producer, buys coffee for reserve every year to sell when the price is high.
Source: VNE
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