According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, rice exports have continuously “accelerated”. Since India stopped exporting ordinary rice, Vietnam has made good use of market opportunities in the past 2 months. By the end of September 2023, Vietnam exported 6.6 million tons of rice, worth 3.66 billion USD, an increase of 40.4% over the same period in 2022. This is a record number exceeding the highest export value our country ever achieved in 2011 (3.65 billion USD).
Vietnam's rice exports in the first 9 months of 2023 have set a new record
From August to September 2023, Vietnam provided the world market with nearly 1.8 million tons of rice, and became the world's largest rice supply in the past 2 months. The average export price from the beginning of the year until now has always been high, estimated at 554 USD/ton, up 14% over the same period last year. There was even a time when the price of Vietnamese rice exports reached nearly 650 USD/ton.
Vietnam's rice export is expected to have a turnover of 4.5 billion USD (Photo: collected)
Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that rice export prices from now until the end of the year will remain high because the demand for rice imports from major consuming markets is still high. (Philippines, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Africa) while rice supply from the world's leading rice exporting countries such as India and Pakistan is still limited.
Vietnamese rice breaks through in many demanding markets
In the first 8 months of 2023, the Philippines is Vietnam's largest rice import market, accounting for 40.3% of total rice exports, an increase of 7% over the same period in 2022; followed by China accounting for 13.5%; Indonesia ranked third, accounting for 12.4%. In addition, the EU market area (Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium,…), Africa (Ghana, Angola,…) also recorded positive growth.
The category structure continues to follow the right direction. The rice export market development strategy to 2030 has been set out with the goal of increasing the value of rice grains. Among them, white rice still accounts for the largest proportion with 55.5% of total exports (about 2.35 million tons); Next is fragrant rice of all kinds, accounting for about 24.2% of total exports (about 1 million tons); Sticky rice ranked third with about 8.5% of total exports (about 358.5 thousand tons).
Vietnam Rice (Photo: Doan Gia Phat company)
Good forecast for the last 3 months of 2023
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, harvest rice output is estimated to reach 8,229 thousand tons in the last 3 months of the year. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nam – Chairman of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said that currently, the room for rice export is still very large when the Philippines needs to import an additional 1.1 million tons of rice, Indonesia needs to import 2. 3 million tons of rice by the end of the year. Along with that, the demand for rice imports from China is also expected to increase in the last months of the year. With this momentum, it is expected that in 2023, exports will set a record of over 8 million tons, with a turnover of about 4.5 billion USD.
Although the market demand for rice is still expanding, with regulations requiring mandatory reserve circulation at export enterprises, along with continuous crop rice production in the Mekong Delta, food security is a problem. National food is always at a safe level, with no shortage of rice for the domestic market.
