Vietnam is estimated to gain export turnovers of nearly 18.115 billion U.S. dollars in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 18.4 percent, local newspaper Investment reported Friday.

In May alone, the country earned about 3.9 billion dollars from shipping abroad goods, mainly crude oil, garments and textiles, rubber, pepper, rice and seafood.

Between January and May, key items posting high export growth in earnings include: coffee with a surge of 74.8 percent, plastic products with 51.7 percent, garment and textile 24.4 percent, woodwork and pepper 22-23 percent.

Vietnam is estimated to import goods totaling 21.365 billion dollars in the first five months, up 26.8 percent against the same period of last year.

The country posted export turnovers of 39.6 billion dollars in 2006, up 22.1 percent against 2005.