Rice exports rebound

Rice exports from many provinces in the Mekong Delta have rebounded thanks to increasing market demand and sales development strategies.

Rice exports are expected to increase further this year

Good signals

Director of the An Giang Province Department of Industry and Trade, Vo Nguyen Nam, said importers’ demand for rice has increased, while the average rice export price has improved slightly. In the first seven months of this year, An Giang exported 212,230 tonnes of rice worth US$98.23 million, Nam added.

Meanwhile, Ben Tre Province’s rice exports in the first seven months of 2017 are 4.5 times the amount in the same period last year, while those of Long An, Soc Trang, and Tien Giang provinces totaled UD$200 million plus, US$35 million, and US$77 million, respectively, up 6.1, 19 and 100 percent from the same period of 2016.

Dong Thap Province’s rice exports reached almost 23,000 tonnes worth US$9.53 million in July, up 212 percent in volume and 138.8 percent in value from June and 113 percent in volume and 99.54 percent in value from the same period of 2016. Nguyen Huu Dung, director the Dong Thap Province Department of Industry and Trade, said the increasing rice import demand and Vietnamese businesses’ wining six of the eight contracts for rice export to the Philippines helped Dong Thap increase rice exports.

Opportunities in the remaining months of 2017

A Dong Thap Province Department of Industry and Trade representative said Bangladesh has just signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on trade in rice, under which it is expected to buy 750,000-800,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam until late 2017. Indonesia and Malaysia are expected to import rice from Vietnam again. China continued to be the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice in the first months of this year.

The industry and trade departments of the Mekong Delta provinces plan support activities for enterprises to further boost rice exports. The An Giang Province Department of Industry and Trade said it would work with embassies and trade counselors of Singapore, Panama, and South Africa in Ho Chi Minh City, and Saudi Arabia in Hanoi, to link province-based businesses with opportunities for product and export promotion. The department will also regularly provide enterprises with information about the farm produce market, assist businesses to find clean land, and work with the Loc Troi Group Joint Stock Company on An Giang Province’s rice branding.

The Tien Giang Province Department of Industry and Trade has a plan to promote production connectivity, open workshops on regulations governing farm produce sales contracts for farmers, and certify rice mills and warehouses of the Tien Giang Food Company.