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HANOI: Vietnam's rubber exports in the first quarter rose 20.6 percent from a year ago to an estimated 236,300 tonnes, the government said on Friday. Revenue from the January-March shipment eased 4.9 percent from the same period last year to $266 million, the government's General Statistics Office said in its monthly report, reflecting a slow price recovery in global markets.

Families in Vietnam’s major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are turning to clean food tended by their relatives in rural provinces after recent news exposing the alarming use of banned chemicals in the food industry. Phuong, a resident in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, said all ingredients used for cooking in her family are transported directly from their hometown in Quang Ngai, a province in central Vietnam. Her husband Tuyen said his family has been worried by ongoing news about chemical-fed cattle and chemical-sprayed greens sold in the market, so they have switched entirely to self-sourcing their daily food.

Vietnamese agencies are considering allowing the import of Chinese poultry meat. The inews has been published on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (MARD) Department of Animal Health’s website. The import was put into discussion at the fourth official conference of the Vietnamese and Chinese animal health agencies. If the two sides can reach consensus on the issue, Chinese poultry will arrive in Vietnam through official channels. To date, Chinese poultry has been entering Vietnam through unofficial channels, especially via border gates.

Pepper shipments from Vietnam, the world's biggest producer, will likely rise 13 percent this year, pushing down export prices, according to the chairman of the nation's industry group. Exports will climb to 150,000 metric tons from about 133,000 tons in 2015, Do Ha Nam, the chairman of the Vietnam Pepper Association, said in an interview. While production will also rise - by 10 percent to about 140,000 tons - he said output from the likes of India, Indonesia and Malaysia will probably decline because of the impact of El Nino, limiting the effect on global supply.

[MANILA] Emerging pests and diseases are posing a threat to the sturdy cassava, a promising crop for developing nations as it can withstand drought and is resistant to climate change. “Higher yields and productivity in cassavas will increase production and these in turn will attract important funds for further research and development.” Cassava “witches’ broom” (CWB) is one such systemic disease caused by phytoplasma, which are microscopic pathogenic agents. The disease causes a broom-like leaf proliferation at the top of the plant, reducing root starch content and crop yields. This is an issue as the starch content contains much of the crop’s value and thus directly affects farmers’ incomes. 

HANOI: Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, will export an estimated 160,000 tonnes (2.67 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in March, up 18.8 percent from a year earlier, the government said on Friday, in line with market expectations. The shipment brought to 794,300 tonnes the country's coffee exports so far in the 2015/2016 season, an increase of 19.9 percent from the previous season, the General Statistics Office said in a monthly report.

Rice export prices rose in Thailand and Vietnam this week as bad weather threatened to disrupt supply, with Thai rice propped up by a stronger baht and potential rise in demand from the Middle East and Africa, traders said on Wednesday. Thai 5-percent broken rice rose to $371-$383 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) basis, from $365-$371 last Wednesday, while the same grain in Vietnam edged up to $380-$385 a tonne, from $375-$385 last week, traders said. 

Vietnam, the world's third-largest rice exporter after India and Thailand, will export an estimated 1.59 million tonnes of the grain in the first quarter of 2016, up 41.6 percent from a year ago, the Agriculture Ministry reported on Friday. Revenue from the January-March rice shipments, headed mostly for Indonesia, China and the Philippines, will reach an estimated $692 million, up 40.8 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said in its monthly report.  Vietnamese 5-percent broken rice quotations rose to $385-$390 a tonne, a five-month high, on fears of crop damage caused by dry weather and the intrusion of sea waters in the Mekong Delta food basket, traders said on Friday. 

Luu Bich Ho, former director of the Development Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, spoke to the newspaper Kinh te & Do thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) about opportunities and challenges that Viet Nam will face to increase its already high GDP.

HCM CITY — Việt Nam is an emerging market for financial investment with favourable conditions created by new policies and fresh impetus given to the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, senior officials said at a conference yesterday. The seminar was titled Vietnam – Korea Capital Markets and Investment Co-operation Prospects. VÅ© Bằng, chairman of the State Securities Commission, reaffirmed that the country’s first derivatives market will become operational by the end of this year, with products including covered warrants and GDK (Generalised Derivative Kernel).

International Finance Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, is looking at the disruptive technology space even as it will continues to place its bets on mainstays like manufacturing, infrastructure and financial services in Vietnam.Sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors, bolstered by Vietnam’s recent openness to the world, are the catalysts for increased influx of foreign investment, Vivek Pathak, East Asia Pacific director for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), said in an interaction.

Agricultural companies are expanding their rubber businesses even after prices of the commodity plunged recently to nearly seven-year lows.  While depressed rubber prices are making it hard for smallholding farmers to eke out a living, big agricultural businesses are creating large plantations across Southeast Asia, partially reversing decades of downsizing in the sector. In Malaysia, one of the world’s top three rubber exporters, acreage owned by large estates dedicated to rubber increased 7.5% in 2015, while small-farmer holdings rose less than 1%, according to the Malaysian Rubber Board. In Indonesia, another top exporter, rubber plantations owned by large estates rose 2.5% in 2014, latest available government data show.

The United States (US) has levied higher anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese warm-water shrimp exports during the period of review from February 1, 2014 to January 31, 2015. This decision was taken at the 10th administrative review (POR 10), according to a notice of the International Trade Administration (ITA) on March 10. The POR10 was requested on 51 Vietnamese shrimp exporters, including two mandatory respondents, Minh Phu Group and Soc Trăng Seafood JSC (Stapimex).

The price of vannamei shrimp in Tien Giang, Vietnam is on the upward trend in the second week of March 2016, according to a post from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers (Vasep). Vannamei of 50 pieces per kilogram count was priced at VND 150,000/kg -- VND 40,000- 50,000/kg higher than that of the same period last year -- and 30/kg shrimp was priced at over VND 200,000/kg.

Vietnam’s shrimp exports to the European Union (EU) declined by 19.7 per cent year on year in 2015, to USD 548.6 million, due to the fact that regional economy faced troubles, that consumers tightened spending and to the euro devaluation against the dollar, which negatively affected imports. Among the three main Vietnamese shrimp importing markets in the EU bloc, the UK was the only market recording positive growth of 13.4 per cent compared to 2014 due to higher demand for warmwater shrimp caused by lower coldwater shrimp supply with high price, reported the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters & Producers (VASEP).

HÀ NỘI – President TrÆ°Æ¡ng Tấn Sang yesterday asked residents of Lá»™c An Commune of Lá»™c Ninh district in the southern Bình PhÆ°á»›c Province to employ high technology for agricultural production in order to minimise the dependence on weather conditions. He noted that it is also local authorities’ responsibility to usher in socio-economic development and promote better living conditions. He spoke with provincial leaders and local residents during his visit to the province yesterday.