Nine Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties given tariff quotas in EU

HÀ NỘI — Nine Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties will enjoy tariff export quotas to Europe under the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) agreement.

Bags of rice loaded onto a ship for export. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

As part of the agreement, the EU will give Việt Nam a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice with a zero-per-cent tax rate per year, including 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.

The EU will also fully liberalise broken rice, helping Việt Nam export an estimated 100,000 tonnes to the EU annually.

For products made from rice, the EU will bring the tax rate down to 0 per cent after three to five years.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) would co-ordinate with localities and exporters to review the list of fragrant rice varieties and amend and supplement where necessary to meet production requirements, said Nguyễn Như Cường, director of the Plant Cultivation Department under (MARD).

Rice plantations in Mekong Delta provinces account for about 25 per cent of the total cultivated area, equivalent to about 1 million hectares. Fragrant rice output is estimated at 5.5 million tonnes.

The amount of fragrant rice exported to the EU was entitled to a preferential tariff quota of 30,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1.2 per cent of the rice produced in the region, so the export potential for fragrant rice remained very high, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Lê Quốc Doanh.

If we complied with EU regulations and exported 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice and 80,000 tonnes of rice in general with high prices, it would help improve the efficiency of rice production in Việt Nam, added Doanh.

The deputy minister noted that after the Government issued Decree 103/2020/NĐ-CP on the certification of fragrant rice varieties exported to the EU, the ministry quickly issued a decision on certification for rice exporters to this market.

Three units have already submitted their documents to the ministry and their certification was completed within five days. Enterprises can submit registration documents through the public administration service portal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, or by post. Enterprise certification is completely free.

Businesses with fragrant rice listed in the EVFTA agreement with orders to export fragrant rice needed  to submit their documents to the Plant Cultivation Department quickly to complete procedures for exports to the EU, said Doanh.