Rice export slump affects local prices

CAN THO – Rice exports in the year to date have inched down, resulting in domestic prices of rice and paddy (unhusked rice) plunging against the year-ago period.

A report on international rice trade was cited by the Vietnam Food Association as indicating that Vietnam’s outbound rice shipments amounted to seven million tons in 2018, the highest since 2016 and 400,000 tons higher than in 2017.

Vietnam, however, has seen rice exports spiraling down since the beginning of 2019. During the first half of January, the country’s rice exports faced a year-on-year drop of a staggering 31.8%, at a mere 132,000 tons.

Apart from the fall in rice export, the local market’s weakening demand for rice at the time has led to prices of rice plummeting.

Particularly, fresh IR 50404 rice in the 2018-2019 winter-spring crop is priced at VND4,500-4,600 per kilogram, down by VND500-700 against the 2017-2018 winter-spring crop while the price of Dai Thom 8 rice, a type of fragrant rice, fell by VND5,500-5,600 per kilogram to VND4,900-5,000.

Meanwhile, the export price of 5% broken rice slid to US$340-345 per ton from the previous price of US$400 per ton.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of private firm Van Loi in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, attributed the fall in prices of rice to decreasing demand of rice importing markets, high yield of rice in the winter-spring rice crop harvest and suspension of rice-related transactions during the Tet holiday.