HANOI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained nearly 1.1 billion U.S. dollars from exporting 104,000 tons of cashew nuts in the first four months of this year, up 33.5 percent in value and 24.6 percent in volume on-year, its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Thursday.

In the four-month period, the country shipped abroad 689,000 tons of coffee worth more than 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective year-on-year rises of 17.7 percent, and 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, it sold overseas 34,000 tons of tea worth 54 million U.S. dollars, witnessing respective year-on-year drops of 10.6 percent and 3.6 percent.

Vietnam earned over 3.5 billion U.S. dollars from exporting 352,205 tons of cashew nuts, mainly to the United States, the Netherlands and China, in 2017, while importing 1.1 million tons of raw cashew from Africa, said the ministry.

Vietnam has strength in cashew processing and customer base and it will assist Cambodia, which is interested in expanding cashew-growing area and exporting raw cashew, in growing 500,000 hectares of cashew with output of some 1 million tons in the next 10 years, according to the Vietnam Cashew Association.