Vietnam hosts first international rice conference

Hundreds of representatives from rice exporting and importing countries attended the two-day 10th World Rice Conference opened on October 10 in Hanoi, jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and The Rice Trade Magazine.

On the sidelines of the conference, the MoIT, the Vietnam Food Association, and a number of rice companies and international experts hosted Vietnam’s first international rice conference, aiming to promote the country’s rice production industry in the face of fierce competition from other rice producers.

The conference aimed to maintain market shares of Vietnamese rice in traditional markets such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia; increase market share in China; expand export markets in Europe and Latin America; and seek opportunities to promote rice products in Singapore and Hong Kong (China).

According to the MoIT, the conference provided a great opportunity for the development of Vietnamese rice as the country is focusing on building rice brands and improving the quality of exported rice.

With the participation of foreign rice importers, distributors and merchants from major markets such as China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Africa, Europe and Mexico, the conference provided many opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises.

In the first eight months of 2018, Vietnam exported 4.4 million tonnes of rice worth US$2.2 billion, up 6.8 percent in volume and 22.1 percent in value compared with the same period of last year.

For many years, rice has maintained its position as one of the country’s key export items and Vietnam has been one of the world’s top three rice exporters. However, Vietnamese rice has faced fierce competition in recent years due to surplus rice supplies from Thailand and India. In addition, large importers have driven to diversify their supplies. Although Vietnamese rice has been available in more than 130 countries and territories, its brands are not identified for the most part.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade has been tasked with prime responsibility for rice

promotion activities. In late March, TRT had a meeting with the Agency of Foreign Trade to propose coordination in the organization of the World Rice Conference in Hanoi in October 2018.