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Traders buy rice at the rice paddy field |
While farmers in the Mekong Delta are delighted as prices of rice are high raising their income, domestic businesses and consumers are worried as rice prices continue to be high.
Soon after farmers harvest the autumn-winter crop, traders proposed to buy it at the field at the price of VND9,000 a kg, said farmer Le The Hung in Hau Giang Province’s Long My town. According to the farmer, this is the first time he has sold rice at such a high price.
Farmer Hung also revealed that he achieved a profit of over 50 percent at such a high price because the production cost fluctuates around VND4,000 per kg.
Currently, farmers in Hau Giang Province have already harvested 25,000 hectares out of 27,000 hectares of the autumn-winter crop with a yield of nearly 6 tons a ha. The whole Mekong Delta region harvested 350,000 hectares out of 686,000 hectares of the fall-winter crop.
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Vietnamese rice is displayed in a supermarket in France |
At the same time, farmers in the region have also sowed 204,000 hectares on 1.4 million hectares of the winter-spring crop. Farmers in several coastal areas that are affected by drought and salinity are taking advantage of the winter-spring crop to avoid the late-crop salinity and drought in the dry season of 2024.
Presently, the rice price in the Mekong Delta is fluctuating from VND8,800 - VND9,800 a kg - the highest level ever.
Vietnam has made an impression in rice exports. Specifically, in just 10 months of 2023, the country exported over 7 million tons of rice. By the end of 2023, the rice export output will reach 8 million tons, bringing about US$4-4.5 billion. This is a successful year for Vietnamese rice exports, said Mr. Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Trung An High-tech Agriculture Company.
According to many businesses in the Mekong Delta, farmers have not called for the government’s assistance in consuming rice this year. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2023, the Mekong Delta will produce rice over 3.8 million hectares, an increase of 13,180 hectares with an output of nearly 24 million tons, an increase of 416,000 tons over the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, Vietnam Food Association (VFA) reported that Vietnam's export rice price is currently at a high level. Five percent broken rice fetches $653 a ton.
Nevertheless, Mr. Do Ha Nam, Vice President of VFA, said that Vietnam's rice prices rising too high is not necessarily an advantage. As per his analysis, when prices are high, customers will look for other markets with better prices and similar quality to Vietnamese rice, like Thailand, leading to the risk of losing the fragrant rice market share because the price of this country's fragrant rice is very competitive with the price of Vietnamese same kind.
Forecasting the rice export market in 2024, Mr. Pham Quang Dieu, Chief Economist of Vietnam Market Analysis and Forecasting Joint Stock Company (Agro Monitor), said it is likely to reach 8 million tons. Inventories will be very low, so businesses must be very cautious about signing many contracts if they are impossible to control the supply to avoid difficulties when prices keep increasing.
Currently, the price of Mekong Delta rice is increasing by VND2,000 per kg, reaching VND18,000 - VND20,000 per kg compared to 2 months ago. Many experts in the field believe that businesses should not be so concentrated on the rice export market but they should keep caution in rice export necessarily.
Above all, according to experts, exporting businesses should maintain a stable supply for the domestic market, and stabilize rice prices to avoid manipulation of rice prices.
