Vietnam earned 702 million U.S. dollars from exporting over 1.8 million tons of cassava and cassava-based products in the first nine months of this year, down 35.6 percent in volume and 2.5 percent in value against the same period last year.

In September alone, the country shipped abroad some 150,000 tons of cassava and cassava-based products worth 63 million U.S. dollars, mainly to Asian countries, according to the Vietnam Cassava Association on Friday.

Despite the export volume fall, the price of Vietnamese cassava surged 51.2 percent on-year in the nine-month period, said the association. Cassava feeds ethanol plants in many countries.

Vietnam exported 3.9 million tons of cassava and cassava-based products worth over 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, seeing respective year-on-year rises of 5.5 percent and 3 percent.

Specifically, Vietnam exported nearly 3.5 million tons of cassava and cassava-based products valued at roughly 911.1 million U.S. dollars to China, the association said, adding that other big export markets included South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines.