Prices of export rice fall to lowest figure in two years

This comes amid the price of Vietnamese 5% broken rice falling sharply to US$385 per tonne, the lowest level seen over the past two years.

According to details given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnamese 5% broken rice in July was sold at US$390 per tonne, the lowest level since February, 2020.

The export price of rice continued to decrease in August, even dropping to as low as US$385 per tonne on August 19, approximately US$100 per tonne lower than the average price of US$485 per tonne seen at the same period last year. 

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said due to the negative impact caused by the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of companies and factories have been forced to suspend their operations, leading to late delivery for orders placed by foreign partners.

Binh went on to reveal that Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company was initially expected to resume export orders to the Republic of Korea after August 16.

However, due to the implementation of social distancing measures because of the spread of the pandemic in southern provinces and cities, this has caused the delivery time to be delayed until September or even beyond.

Nguyen Van Don, director of Viet Hung Company Limited in Tien Giang province, said that the company's rice inventories remain high, therefore it has yet to sign new contracts with partners. Due to a number of challengers, including high transportation costs, the low export price of rice has seriously impacted the cash flow of the company.

According to the MARD, the country’s domestic supply source will become more abundant after the winter-spring rice harvest season, with the nation likely to export between 6 million and 6.2 million tonnes of rice of all types, with the value of this being worth roughly US$3.325 billion this year.