Từ khóa: #fragrant rice

Nearly 50 percent of vegetables and fruits collected from wholesale markets are contaminated. The news released by the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board came as a great shock to everyone.

 

Entering April, farmers in Mekong Delta provinces are harvesting the last winter-spring rice fields of the total area of 1.5 million hectares, with an output of about 10.7 million tons. The prices of rice have declined in the past few days but remained at high levels as farmers focused on producing rice varieties to supply the high-end segment. This is considered an important change for Mekong Delta rice farmers.

In recent days, farmers in the Mekong Delta have been flexibly sowing the winter-spring rice crop early to avoid drought and saltwater intrusion at the end of the rice crop. Not only using high-quality rice varieties, but the percentage of farmers using certified rice varieties has also increased rapidly. These are important turning points in improving the quality of rice to enhance the value of Vietnamese rice in the international market.

At the end of the year, the weather in the South has started getting cold. This is also the time when the water in the fields downstream began to recede. Many farmers along the National Highway 61C, which connects Hau Giang and Can Tho provinces, are rushing to plow the soil to sow the winter-spring rice crop.

According to the Department of Crop Production, the EU's total demand for imported rice is 2.3 million tons  per year, with a value of 1.4 billion euros in 2019. In comparison with other countries in the ASEAN, Vietnam's rice exports to the EU are only one-sixth of Thailand’s, one-tenth of Myanmar’s, and a quarter of Cambodia’s.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on September 22 coordinated with the People's Committee of An Giang Province to hold the announcement ceremony of the export of the first batch of fragrant rice to Europe under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) with the participation of leaders of the MARD, other relevant ministries, and the representatives of the European Union in Vietnam.

The EU has raised the quota of rice imports from Vietnam from 50,000 tons to 80,000 tons per year. Of which, the additional 30,000 tons of rice is fragrant rice from the Mekong Delta, which will receive a tariff wild card, and according to the schedule, its import tariff will be at zero percent within the next 3-5 years.