HANOI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported 840,000 tons of cotton worth nearly 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, posting respective year-on-year increases of 23.7 percent and 25.8 percent, according to its Ministry of Industry and Trade on Monday.

In the six-month period, Vietnam also imported 505,000 tons of yarn totaling roughly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 17.9 percent in volume and up 34.7 percent in value.

Meanwhile, the country spent 6.4 billion U.S. dollars importing cloth, up 17.1 percent, and spent 2.9 billion U.S. dollars importing materials and accessories for production of garments, textiles and footwear, up 6.6 percent.

Vietnam, whose yarn industry heavily depends on imported cotton, has imported increasingly bigger volumes of the material in recent years to feed its growing textile and garment production and export, local economists said, noting that its biggest cotton import market is the United States.

Vietnam's imported cotton volume surged to nearly 1.3 million tons in 2017 from 150,000 tons in 2005. Last year, the country spent over 2.3 billion U.S. dollars importing cotton, up 41.2 percent.

Vietnam reaped 13.4 billion U.S. dollars from exporting garments and textiles in the first six months of this year, seeing a year-on-year rise of 13.8 percent, mainly to the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea.

The country's garment and textile export turnovers were over 25.9 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 8.8 percent, said the ministry.