Vietnam spends nearly 1.7 billion USD on corn import every year

A corn field in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has so far this year imported 4.13 million tonnes of corn worth 825 million USD, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.  

The figures represented increases of 9 percent in volume and 11 percent in value compared to the same period last year.

Vietnam spends up to 1.7 billion USD a year on average to buy corn from Argentina, Brazil and Thailand.

Corn import is on the rise due to the country’s limited plantation, which covers just over 1 million hectares, and difficult cultivation conditions that have led to low productivity, at 4.6 tonnes per hectare on average. Increasing demand for animal feed also contributes to the cause.

The agricultural body plans to shift between 700,000 and 800,000 hectares of low-productivity rice paddies to the cultivation of other plants, with corn making up the lion’s share