Expanding opportunities for exports

Vietnam exported 259.67 billion USD worth of goods and recorded a trade surplus of 21.68 billion USD in the first nine months of 2023. Although the figure is lower than of the same period last year, exports in the last four months have maintained growth momentum, signalling a positive recovery.

Signs of recovery

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), most key exports in September posted positive revenue growth from a year earlier, with farming exports up 31.1% to 3.01 billion USD. Among the agricultural exports, fruit and vegetables surged 160%, rice 80%, cashew nuts 39.6% and pepper 22.7%. The export turnover of manufactured goods also rose by 1.8% to 26.65 billion USD.

Overall export is still struggling as the total value during the January-September period fell 8.2%, but there are also bright spots. The slump of domestic enterprises was lower than that of foreign-invested firms (5.7% versus 9.1%), while there were 32 categories of goods posting over 1 billion USD in export revenues, the same as last year.

Agricultural products were able to take advantage of market opening opportunities and rising prices to achieve a growth rate of 3.1%. Vietnam also managed to diversify its export markets, with exports to Africa, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and Western Asia all increasing, despite drops in shipments to the US and EU.

A range of measures were also taken to remove the bottlenecks to exports to China, even during the peak harvest, making China the only major market where Vietnam’s exports reported positive growth at 2.1%.

Director of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Thi Huong noted that Vietnam’s export slump has been decreasing quarter by quarter, from 11.9% in the January-March quarter to 11.8% in the second quarter and 1.2% in the last three months. Such positive signs raise the expectations of recovery in global demand, which will help Vietnam improve its exports in the final months of the year.

Search for new markets

According to the MOIT, Vietnam’s exports are forecast to continue improving towards the end of the year thanks to cooling inflation in major economies such as the US and Europe as well an expected surge in demand during the year-end holiday. Vietnam is also expected to benefit from many multinationals’ relocation of their supply chains.

In fact, many foreign firms are stepping up their diversification strategies and have selected Vietnam as a strategic location in their global supply chains. At the recent Vietnam International Sourcing 2023 event, many large companies from Japan, the US, France, Thailand and Mexico were present to look for more providers from Vietnam.

As many of Vietnam’s established export markets still face difficulties, the MOIT said it will continue accelerating the negotiations and signing of new trade agreements to diversify the markets, products and supply chains.

Recently, the ministry worked with ASEAN countries to conclude negotiations on upgrading the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. The MOIT is also working to present the documents on the UK’s accession to the CPTPP to the National Assembly for approval in its first plenary session in 2024. For the recently signed free trade agreements with Israel, work is also underway so that it may soon be approved by the Government and implemented in early 2024.