Rice exports to follow strong upward trend

Vietnam’s rice exports are likely to continue their vigorous growth in the late months of the year as the demand from China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), the Philippines and African countries is increasing.

The Philippines intends to import an additional 500,000-800,000 tons of rice from now to the end of the year while the RoK will buy 92,783 tons. Indonesia and African countries have an increasing demand for rice imports to cope with production decline due to the impact of floods. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s rice output has dropped sharply after large areas of rice fields were destroyed by floods. This offers an opportunity for Vietnam to access and supply high-grade rice for Cambodia’s traditional markets such as China and the EU.

It’s noteworthy that a new governmental decree on rice exports which will come into effect as from October 1, 2018 will facilitate rice exporters, especially small and medium sized enterprises, to boost exports of organic and other high quality rice to big markets with strong demand such as China, the EU, Africa, Iraq, Cuba and the UAE.

According to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (AgroTrade) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country exported around 441,000 tons of rice valued at US$209 million in August, bringing the total rice exports in the first eight months of this year to about 4.4 million tons worth US$2.2 billion, up 6.8% in volume and 22.1% in value against the same period last year.