Vietnam 2019 rice exports up 4.2% y/y at 6.37 mln tonnes: customs

Rice exports from Vietnam, the world’s third-largest shipper of the grain, rose 4.2% in 2019 from a year earlier to 6.4 million tonnes, customs data showed on Monday.

Men load rice bags to a ship for export at a rice processing factory in Vietnam's southern Mekong delta, Vietnam July 6, 2017. Photo: Reuters

However, revenue from rice exports last year dropped 8.3% to $2.8 billion, the Customs Department said in a statement.

West Africa, the Philippines and Malaysia were among the largest buyers by volume of Vietnamese rice, it added.

In December, Vietnam’s exports increased 36.7% from the previous month to around 500,000 tonnes, worth $228 million.

The government’s General Statistics Office late last month forecast 2019 rice exports at $6.259 million tonnes, and December exports at 390,000 tonnes.