Surpassing US, China to become the largest consumer of Vietnam’s agricultural products

Surpassing the United States, China has become the largest consumer of Vietnam’s agricultural exports in 2023. Accordingly, China has engrossed a variety of Vietnam’s agricultural products at a high price.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s report, the agro-forestry-aquatic product export of Vietnam in 2023 reached $53.1 billion, slightly down 1.2% compared to 2022. China, the United States, Japan, the EU, and ASEAN continue to be in the top 5 largest markets of Vietnam’s agricultural exports.

However, last year, except for the Chinese market, which recorded positive growth, Vietnam’s agricultural exports to key markets all had negative growth.

To be more specific, agricultural export turnover to the Chinese market will increase by 17% compared to 2022 and account for 23% of the total export value of our country’s entire agricultural sector in 2023. Accordingly, China officially surpasses the United States to become the largest customer of Vietnam’s agro-forestry-aquatic products.

Agricultural product exports to the US market decreased sharply by 16%, accounting for only 21% of the total agricultural export turnover. Thus, after many years of holding the leading position, the US has retreated to be the second-largest customer of Vietnam’s agricultural products.

In 2023, China spent up to $12.2 billion to import Vietnam’s agricultural and aquatic products. Many agricultural products in Vietnam are engrossed at a high price by China.

For example, durian exports set a historic record by earning $2.3 billion in 2023, of which this market of more than 1.4 billion people alone accounted for over 90% of the total export value. Thanks to that, durian has become Vietnam’s new billion-dollar fruit.

In terms of the total export value of the entire Vietnamese fruit and vegetable industry, the Chinese market accounts for 55.8%.

Source: nguoiquansat