Soc Trang’s export revenue grows 26 percent despite COVID-19

Wednesday, July 8, 2020  10:57

Soc Trang (VNA) – Export revenue of the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang reached 470 million USD in the first six months of 2020, up 26 percent over the same period in 2019, despite impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and severe salinity.

Of the total, 332 million USD came from aquatic products, a rise of 24.83 percent, and 97 million USD from rice, 2.2 times higher than that in the same time in 2019.

A number of local fisheries firms predicted that shrimp exports will rise strongly in the coming months, even by 50 percent year on year in July.

Experts attributed the results to Vietnam’s strong performance in controlling the pandemic and local firms’ efforts in enhancing the quality and designs for their products.

In 2020, Soc Trang aims to earn 900 million USD from exports, including 670 million USD of fisheries sales.

To this end, the province has directed the industry and trade sector and businesses to expand markets, while focusing on traditional ones and diversifying their products to meet market demands.

Lam Hoang Nghiep, Vice Chairman of the Soc Trang People’s Committee, said in the first six months of this year, economic growth of the province was only 0.51 percent, the lowest for the period since 1992. However, upturn was still seen in production, processing and agro-fisheries export, showing optimistic signs in economic growth for the rest of the year./.

VNA