Rice exports breaking records

Buyers are lining up to buy Vietnam’s highly prized rice

According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), Vietnam is likely to ship a record 7.2 million tonnes in 2010, up from 2009’s figure of more than six million tonnes, which was a 29.35 per cent rise against 2008.

This year’s rice export turnover is expected to be $2.93 billion, based on 2009’s average export price of $407.09 per tonne.

The new record includes 5.8 million tonnes of rice produced this year and 1.4 million tonnes in stock carried forward from 2009. Since the beginning of this year, the country has secured rice export contracts to sell 6.6 million tonnes, up 25 per cent against 5.3 million tonnes secured in 2009’s corresponding period.

The VFA, whose member enterprises account for 90 per cent of Vietnam’s total rice exports, reported that in the year’s first nine months, local exporters shipped 5.39 million tonnes of rice, with an export turnover of $2.28 billion, up 8.51 per cent in volume and 12.9 per cent in value against 2009’s corresponding period. The average export price touched $422.67 per tonne, up $16.43 per tonne against the same period last year.

In February this year, the Vietnamese government targeted to ship about six million tonnes of rice this year, with an export turnover of $2.46 billion, based on the average export price of $407.09 per tonne. VFA chairman Truong Thanh Phong ascribed Vietnam’s rice export windfalls this year to declined rice exports from big exporters like Thailand, India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the world’s increasing demand for rice coupled with rice and wheat crop failures in many countries due to bad weather.

Besides, since early this year, Vietnam has succeeded in expanding its rice export markets, such as the Philippines, which imported 1.5 million tonnes from Vietnam. During the first nine months of this year, Angola imported 154,000 tonnes from Vietnam, up 99.7 per cent against 2009’s corresponding period, Ghana imported 123,000 tonnes, up 30 per cent against the same period last year, and China imported 98,100 tonnes, up 13.6 per cent.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Africa is considered a big rice market for Vietnam. The FAO said global rice consumption in 2010-2011 was forecast to increase to 461 million tonnes, 2 per cent above 2009’s level. Consumption of rice as food is expected to grow to 395 million tonnes, or 86 per cent of the total.

The VFA recently decided the export price of 5 per cent broken rice and 25 per cent broken rice would be $475 and $445 per tonne, respectively. The new prices took effect from October 12, 2010.