Vietnam eyes bringing rice exports up 12%

The country’s farms can produce 28 million tons of rice a year and the ministry has calculated that around 20 million should be enough to ensure national food security, it said in a report Thursday.

The report was released to inform the National Assembly of how much rice Vietnam can ship overseas after several countries such as India, Russia and the United Arab Emirates have banned rice exports.

Although Vietnam is the world’s second largest rice exporter behind India, it also imports from India.

But as most of the import is to produce animal feed, India’s ban of basmati white rice will not have a large impact on Vietnam’s market, the ministry said.

Vietnam rice prices have surged to new records in recent weeks, up to $660 per ton at one point, as many markets such as China, the Philippines and Indonesia have been raising their purchase by double or even triple digits.

The country has exported 4.83 million tons in the first seven months and recorded nearly $2.6 billion in revenue. More than three-quarters of the exports went to Asian countries.

The EU bought 28% more rice from Vietnam compared to the same period last year.

But agriculture minister Le Minh Hoan said that other exports categories were seeing slower growth due to a decline in demand from other countries.

Agriculture, forestry and seafood exports in the first seven months fell 9.1% year-on-year to $29.13 billion.