HANOI, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained over 1.7 billion U.S. dollars from exporting 178,000 tons of cashew nuts in the first six months of this year, posting respective year-on-year rises of 17.6 percent and 18 percent, its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Tuesday.

In the six-month period, the country shipped abroad over 1 million tons of coffee worth roughly 2 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.6 percent in volume but down 6 percent in value against the same period last year.

Meanwhile, it sold overseas 57,000 tons of tea worth 93 million U.S. dollars, witnessing respective year-on-year declines of 9.6 percent and 4.4 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 will assist Cambodia 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.