HANOI - Vietnam's coffee exports in the first half of this year are expected to have increased 3.7% from a year earlier to 955,000 tonnes, and rice exports are seen up 5.6%, government data released on Monday showed.

COFFEE Coffee exports from Vietnam likely increased an estimated 3.7% in the first half from a year earlier to 955,000 tonnes, equal to 15.9 million 60-kg bags, the General Statistics Office said in a report on Monday. Coffee export revenue for Vietnam, the world's biggest producer of the robusta bean, likely increased 2.5% to $1.61 billion in the six-month period, the report said. The country's coffee shipments in June were estimated at 140,000 tonnes valued at $237 million, it said.

RICE Rice exports in the first half of this year from Vietnam were forecast to have increased 5.6% from a year earlier to 3.5 million tonnes. Revenue from rice exports in the period was expected to show a surge of 19.3% to $1.73 billion. June rice exports from Vietnam, the world's third-largest shipper of the grain, totalled 450,000 tonnes, worth $228 million

ENERGY Vietnam's first-half crude oil exports were seen rising 24.6% from the same period last year to an estimated 2.5 million tonnes. Crude oil export revenue in January to June is expected to show a fall of 30.3% to $621 million. Oil product imports in the first half were estimated at 6.35 million tonnes, up 46.7% from the same period last year, while the value of product imports fell 0.1% to $2 billion .

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen Editing by Ed Davies) ((haphuong.nguyen@thomsonreuters.com; +84-24-3852-9623;))