Many countries rush to buy Vietnamese rice

The latest report of the Vietnam Food Association shows that the rice export picture in October has many changes in import rankings when China - the second largest importer of Vietnamese rice for many years, dropped to 6th place. Meanwhile, emerging countries such as Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Malaysia continuously changed their rankings, surpassing China and being in the top 5 in terms of market share.

Accordingly, in October, Indonesia imported more than 144,600 tons of rice from Vietnam - ranking second after the Philippines. Next is Ivory Coast - this market previously imported only 1,000-3,000 tons of rice from Vietnam, in October it increased to nearly 62,000 tons, equivalent to a value of 37.2 million USD.

Similarly, Ghana and Malaysia also increased their import volume in October by 5-6 times compared to February, to 46,470 tons and 40,728 tons respectively - rising to the top 5 countries importing Vietnamese rice. Compared to September, the rice import volume in October of these countries increased by 20-30%.

According to exporters, these countries increased their purchases of Vietnamese rice due to a sharp decrease in global supply. In the domestic market, the rice supply of these countries has also been affected by natural disasters and drought. Therefore, to ensure prices and reserve supply, they have increased rice imports from Vietnam.

Indonesia needs about 1.5 million tons of rice for its national reserves by the end of the year. Acting Agriculture Minister Arief Prasetyo Adi said Vietnam and Thailand will be the two main rice suppliers for this purchase.

Preum Bulog (the agency designated by the Indonesian Government as the rice importer) said that all necessary permits for the import of 1.5 million tons of rice have been issued by the relevant authorities of this country and the import was carried out from the end of October this year.

Ivory Coast, Ghana their rice production in the past 2 years is not enough. Especially, these countries in the West African region are always in a state of natural disasters, crop failures, political instability or epidemics.

Because of the large volume of purchases, Vietnam's rice export price is the highest in the world and has remained at 653 USD per ton for nearly a month, 75 USD more expensive than Thai goods.

In the domestic market, domestic rice prices continue to reach record highs. In particular, in the North, rice prices have increased sharply. Specifically, Dai Thom, which is bought from large domestic companies, costs VND21,000 per kilogram, up VND1,000 (5%) compared to the previous month and up VND3,000 (16%) compared to the same period last year.

Rice purchased by stores from Loc Troi Group and ST21 and ST24 varieties from small and medium enterprises also increased by VND500 per kilogram compared to a month ago. For Thom Lai Long An, the price per kilogram is VND21,000, Go Cong VND22,000, both increased by VND1,500.

According to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, this year's rice output will reach 43-43.4 million tons, an increase of about 650,000-700,000 tons compared to 2022. In addition to export supply, Vietnam still has to ensure domestic food security.

As of October 25, the Autumn-Winter crop still has about 400,000 hectares unharvested, equivalent to nearly 2.2 million tons of rice to be harvested from now until the end of December. For the Winter-Spring crop 2023-2024, it is expected to be planted on nearly 3 million hectares, a decrease of 10,000 hectares compared to the previous crop. However, the output is expected to increase compared to the same period in 2022, reaching over 20 million tons. The reason is that growers are increasingly skilled in care techniques and choosing varieties with good yields suitable for the climate.