MoIT rolls out plans to boost rice exports

Specifically the MoIT has set its sights on the African, West Asian and South Asian markets citing them as high demand markets where it can be price competitive with the other major players in the industry.

Currently the primary suppliers of rice to Africa are Thailand, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the US. Thailand tops the list, accounting for 50% of market share, and the MoIT believes there arehighly favourable prospects to make substantive headway into the market in 2015.

For West Asia, Iran and Iraq are two largest rice importers that collectively purchase in excess of 1.2 million tonnes of rice annually, making it a highly lucrative target market for Vietnam with ample opportunity to pick up market share in the coming year.   

In South Asia, Bangladesh is the dominant rice importer and the MoIT believes it can capitalise in the market on the back of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two governments that went into effect in early 2014.

The US Department of Agriculture has also forecast that rice exports will surge in South Asia for 2015 so the MoIT is confident this market is a solid target for exports. Other markets the MoIT have under its microscope with plans to negotiate deals are the Ivory Coast, Congo, Kenya, Angola, Mozambique and Madagascar.

In order to augment rice exports to these markets, the MoIT aims to strengthen marketing and promotion efforts and improve coordination with other governmental agencies involved in agro-forestry-fisheries exports.

The MoIT will also establish bonded warehouses in key markets such as Cameroon, Angola, and Mozambique to facilitate Vietnamese exporters and improve market accessibility the MoIT concluded.