According to the Vietnam Food Association, Vietnam's export rice prices have risen sharply recently. The price of Vietnam's five-percent broken rice currently stands at US$453 per ton, an increase of $25 per ton compared to October.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade, on the morning of July 13, informed that the amount of Vietnamese rice exported to the UK was at risk of a sharp decline because rice from other countries captured the market share.
Vietnam exported 1.48 million tonnes of rice, worth US$715 million, in the first three months this year, up 24 percent in volume and 10.5 percent in value against the same period last year.
Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has just signed an official dispatch proposing the Prime Minister to direct the opening of the green channel to ease congestion and difficulties for the rice market in the Mekong Delta with two options.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), on the afternoon of August 15, informed that Berth 125 of Cat Lai Port (HCMC) would resume operations from August 16 to connect the export activities for rice exporting enterprises in the South.
Although the growing area of rice this year decreased compared to last year, paddy prices in the Mekong Delta still plunged sharply, with some rice varieties falling by VND1,300 per kg because enterprises could not export after purchasing paddy.
Hopeless and disappointed is the current feeling of thousands of Mekong Delta farmers when summer-autumn rice is being massively harvested because many households are waiting for traders, but they still have not come to buy paddy yet.
In this summer-autumn rice crop, Mekong Delta farmers sowed more than 1.5 million hectares of rice and currently have harvested over 60% of the total area. However, many farmers are extremely anxious because summer-autumn rice has already entered harvest season and is waiting to sell, but traders have not come to buy yet. In An Giang Province, some farmers agreed to reduce rice prices, but traders still dumped their deposits.
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.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) stated that although the rice-growing areas reduced, increasing rice yields, stable export of rice, and high selling prices have been beneficial for farmers at a conference to preliminarily summarize the production of the winter-spring rice crop 2020-2021, and deploy production of the summer-autumn, autumn-winter, and the winter rice crops in the South, held on the morning of March 24 in Can Tho.
Vietnam’s export turnover to six Northern European countries in 2020 was equal to figures reported in the previous year despite difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Vietnamese Commercial Counsellor in Sweden Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy.
In recent days, the export prices of Vietnamese rice have continued to top rice exporting countries, surpassing those of Thailand, India, and Pakistan. Typically, on January 22, the export price was at US$523 per ton for five-percent broken rice, $498 per ton for 25-percent broken rice, and $438 per ton for 100-percent broken rice. Last year, the export prices of Vietnamese rice also took the highest position many times.
The first tons of Vietnamese fragrant rice exported to the UK under the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) have started to be sold on the London market from January 26.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the People's Committee of Can Tho City, on the afternoon of January 13, at Trung An Agricultural High-Tech Joint Stock Company (Trung An Company), held a ceremony to export the first batch of rice in 2021 by Trung An Company to Singapore and Malaysia.
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.
During these days, farmers in some provinces in the Mekong Delta have started to harvest early winter-autumn rice with the joy of a bumper crop and high prices.
