Rice exports up in both quantity and value

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) expects a boost in earnings from rice exports as world demand and prices surge.

VFA President Truong Thanh Phong said rice exporters have so far this year earned 2.56 billion USD from exporting over 5.5 million tonnes of rice, representing an increase of over 14 percent in value and almost 12 percent in quantity over the previous year.

Vietnam is among a few major rice exporters to enjoy such a rosy situation, with Thailand , India and Pakistan suffering a decrease in rice exports.

Abnormal climatic conditions caused bad harvests in many countries. Indonesia , for example, had to drop its plan to export rice and was forced to import food instead due to bad harvests. In September alone, the Islamic country imported 300,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam and 200,000 tonnes from Thailand .

Rice reserves in Africa are depleting, pushing the continent towards importing rice. Poor harvests in many republics of the former Soviet Union have inflated world wheat prices and shifted some demand from wheat to rice, causing more pressure on world rice prices, said economists.

FOB prices for Vietnamese rice averaged 422.67 USD per tonne in the first nine months of the year, up by 16.43 USD year on year

Rice exporters have signed contracts of 6.8 million tonnes against 6.5-6.6 million tonnes previously planned for the whole year.

Enterprises are expected to sign contracts for the export of an additional 3 million tonnes of rice and ship another 2 million tonnes in the fourth quarter of the year.

As a result, Vietnam is likely to export between 7.2 and 7.5 million tonnes of rice this year, breaking its record of 6 million tonnes in 2009.

Tags: Vietnam rice, Vietnam rice exports