Vietnam has shipped 610,000 tons of rice abroad in the first quarter this year, fetching revenue of USUS$198 million, down 46 per cent in volume and 35 per cent in value, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
The statistics also show the world’s second largest rice exporter earned USUS$114 million from selling 350,000 tons abroad in March alone, seeing on-year falls of 42 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively.
The sharp reduction is attributed to the fact that domestic enterprises lack ships to transport rice from the Mekong Delta to HCM City, and from HCM City to other countries, although the country is harvesting rice profusely.
Truong Thanh Phong, general director of Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), said the company has signed export contracts for three million tons of rice with foreign partners for this year. The price is high, but it does not currently have enough transportation means.
For the last two weeks, Vinafood 2 bought more than 20,000 tons of rice from Mekong Delta’s farmers everyday, and there was 1.2 million tons of rice in storage already. Lack of ships has caused a delay in buying rice, leading to the price in the Mekong Delta falling by VND100-200 to VND2,700-2,750 per kilo.
Farmers in the Mekong Delta grew 1.6 million hectares of rice this winter spring season. The ministry says farmers have harvested 50 per cent of the above. The area is expects a crop of nine million tons of rice this year.
In Vietnam, rice export prices were up slightly in the past few days amid expected high global demand for rice in the coming months.
Indonesia and the Philippines, two of Vietnam’s main buyers, have purchased more than one million tons of Vietnamese rice, via tenders over the past few weeks, for delivery in June.
On March 30, the Vietnam Food Association set export prices for 5 per cent broken rice at USUS$305-US$310 a ton, free on board at Saigon Port, versus USUS$305 a ton on March 28. (Vietnam & World Economy)
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