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Businesses, farmers need to make more effort to boost rice export volume |
The world rice market is expanding so farmers in the Mekong Delta - also known as the "Rice Bowl of Vietnam - are very delighted. In the last winter-spring rice crop, farmers in the region sold rice for VND5,500-VND8,000 per kg, the highest price in the past 10 years.
For more than 20 days, farmers in the Mekong Delta will harvest early summer-autumn rice. However, in some localities, traders have deposited to buy rice. For instance, trader Nguyen Van Hai in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang’s Cai Lay District said that he had spent over VND100 million as a deposit to buy 500 tons of rice (50ha), equivalent to VND2 million-VND3 million a ha or the average price of rice is VND6,500 a kg.
According to calculations of many farmers in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces, the upcoming summer-autumn rice crop is likely to reach 7 tons a ha. With an average price of over VND 6,500 a kg, farmers can make a profit of VND25million-VND30 million a ha. However, many rice exporters are currently having difficulty accessing credit sources, especially when rice prices are high.
According to the Department of Crop Production, farmers are gradually tending to grow fragrant - specialty, high-quality rice accounting for over 80 percent while the group of medium-quality rice is only about 7 percent left. This helps to increase the export price of Vietnamese rice and increase farmers' profits.
Mr. Le Huu Toan, Deputy Director of Kien Giang Province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that in 2022, farmers whose paddy field is about 12,000 hectares associated with businesses and this year, more farmers who owned 27,000 hectares with high-quality rice for export will link with businesses for exports to the EU.
Every year, farmers in Kien Giang Province cultivate about 300,000 ha of two-crop rice and farmers whose rice paddy field is about 100,000 ha sign contracts with exporters, mainly Trung An, Loc Troi and Tan Long group. Currently, Kien Giang rice has been exported to at least 13 markets, including fastidious markets such as Japan and the US. Currently, rice exporting companies are looking for new prestigious partners in the markets of European countries, the US and Japan to promote rice exports in the high-quality segment.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Food Export Business - Loc Troi Group, said that the group is looking for partners in Europe to increase rice exports, contributing to the rice production chain.
Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is completing the final steps to submit to the Prime Minister for approval the project ‘Sustainable development of ibe million hectares of high-quality rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta’.
According to the draft project, by 2025, the cultivation area of the rice-growing area will reach 500,000 ha and farmers will apply sustainable advanced farming processes certified or granted with planting codes.
Moreover, the volume of exported rice with Vietnamese brands accounts for 20 percent of the total rice exports of the specialized farming area.
According to the Vietnam Food Association, by mid-April 2023, the Southeast Asian country had exported nearly 2.4 million tons of rice, worth US$1.251 billion, up 33.70 percent in quantity and 44.55 percent in value compared to the same period in 2022. Especially, in the first months of 2023, the average export price of rice reached $531 per ton, up 9.2 percent over the same period. This is considered the highest level in the past 10 years. In particular, the average export price of rice to China reached $589 a ton, up more than 18 percent over the same period.
By staff writers - Translated by Anh Quan
