Vietnam boosts rice quality to increase China market share

Given China’s huge demand for rice, Vietnamese businesses need to meet the quality requirements to promote exports to this market.

In 2018, China imported rice worth US$1.6 billion, including Vietnamese rice worth US$740 million. In the first four months of 2019, Vietnam exported 2.03 million tonnes of rice worth US$866 million.

Many Vietnamese businesses have received large orders from China, especially those in the southwestern provinces of Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang.

Nguyen Thanh Muoi, chairman and general director of the Tan Dong Tien Joint Stock Company, said the company exported 150,000 tonnes of rice to China in 2018 and 100,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019. This figure is expected to reach 300,000 tonnes for the year. “The company has invested heavily in rice cultivation and advanced production machinery and equipment to meet the Chinese market’s demand,” Muoi said.

Phan Loi, deputy director of the An Giang Department of Industry and Trade, said the province has driven towards increasing the proportion of high-quality and high-value rice by promoting mechanization and high-tech applications in rice production. As a result, An Giang Province exported 475,000 tonnes of rice in 2018, 141,000 tonnes of them to China. The figures were 125,000 tonnes and 11,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019, respectively.

Loc Troi Group annually exports 100,000 tonnes of rice to the Chinese market. Nguyen Tien Dung, director of the Loc Troi Group’s Food Trade Department, said the group has packed its high-quality rice in small bags for direct sales in supermarkets and sales through e-commerce websites like Alibaba and Kinh Dong.

Pham Thien Nghia, deputy chairman of the Dong Thap People’s Committee, said that in addition to developing trade with Chinese partners, the province is improving the quality of its rice products and providing the best support for businesses from the two countries seeking cooperation opportunities.

Tran Quoc Toan, deputy director of the Agency of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that apart from efforts to address shortcomings by authorities of both countries, production, processing, preservation and packaging improvement efforts by domestic businesses are crucial to increase rice exports.

Liu Ing, a member of the China Food Association and deputy chairman of the Shanxi Province Food Association, said businesses in both countries need more meetings to exchange and get market information in order to increase Vietnamese rice exports to China.