Vietnam's rice export prices on downward trend

ABO/NDO- During the past week, rice export prices in Vietnam and other countries were trending downwards, following a strong surge, according to the Vietnam Food Association.

On September 22, Vietnam’s 5% broken rice was priced at 613 USD per tonne, while the same variety from Thailand and Pakistan were sold for 603 USD per tonne and 598 USD per tonne, respectively.

The drop in global prices also led to decreases in rice prices in the Mekong Delta provinces.

With current prices, rice farmers are enjoying profits of 35-40 million VND (1,435-1,640 USD) per hectare, said Trinh Van Cuong, Director of the Vinh Cuong Agricultural Cooperative in Bac Lieu Province.

Now is the time for enterprises to purchase rice to fulfil year-end orders. In 2023, Vietnam is expected to export more than 7 million tonnes of rice, worth 4 billion USD.

Harvesting rice in the Mekong Delta.

Some rice exporters estimate that rice export prices are unlikely to make big gains in the coming time as importing countries have managed to adapt to a certain degree in the wake of the crisis.

Therefore, to increase export revenue, exporters are still looking for orders of high-quality rice, which will fetch higher prices.

Besides traditional markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and China, Vietnamese rice companies are concentrating on other markets such as the US, Europe and Japan.

Under the government’s rice export market development plan until 2030, the Asian market will account for about 55% of Vietnam’s total rice export, followed by the African market with 23%.

The Middle East and European markets will each make up 5%, while the shares of the American and Oceanian markets are 8% and 4% respectively.

(Source: NDO)