Vietnam's rice price surpasses Thailand's by 92 USD/ton

On November 1, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) informed that the export price of 5% broken rice from Vietnam as of October 31 was 653 USD/ton, an increase of 10 USD/ton compared to the previous day.

This is the highest price since rice prices started to spike in late July, when India banned the export of regular white rice. Currently, Vietnam's rice export price has also set a record in the past 10 years.

Meanwhile, the price of Thai rice decreased by 3 USD/ton (5% broken), to 561 USD/ton, 92 USD/ton lower than Vietnamese rice of the same quality.

Vietnam's rice export price breaks record again

Explaining this phenomenon, Mr. Nguyen Van Don, Director of Viet Hung Company Limited (Tien Giang Province), said that Vietnam's rice season is over, there is not much rice left so the price is pushed up. Meanwhile, Thai rice is in season so the price has decreased, the Thai currency has depreciated against the USD so the price of Thai rice is also cheaper than before.

Mr. Don said that from now until the end of 2023, there will not be much Vietnamese rice left. Enterprises mainly buy to pay off old orders and serve the domestic market, but with the current high prices, it is difficult to sign new contracts. With the current domestic raw material prices, enterprises must export 5% broken rice at 700 USD/ton to make a profit.

"In mid-October, Indonesia opened a bid for 300,000 tons for supply from Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, but no Vietnamese enterprise won the bid because the price of Vietnamese rice was high," Mr. Don added.

According to statistics, in the first 10 months of 2023, Vietnam exported more than 7.1 million tons of rice, worth nearly 4 billion USD, up 17% in volume and 35% in value over the same period in 2022. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development forecasts that in 2023, Vietnam could export about 7.8 million tons of rice, with a turnover of about 4.2-4.5 billion USD.