Rice exports rebound after ten months of decline
Rice export shipments picked up in November after having dipped for 10 months in a row, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
A report of the ministry indicated that Vietnam shipped abroad 885,000 tons of rice worth US$372 million last month, up 442,000 tons and US$155 million year-on-year respectively.
More rice export in November helped bring the volume in the first 11 months this year to 6.24 million tons worth US$2.65 billion, up 3.6% in volume but down nearly 4.9% in value compared to the same period last year.
The January-October average export price of rice was US$426.04 per ton, down US$34.05 year-on-year.
Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of Van Loi Corp. in Tien Giang Province, said the contracts Vietnam won earlier this year to sell 450,000 tons of rice to the Philippines and one million tons to Indonesia resulted in a sharp rise in rice shipments last month.
The ministry said the domestic rice market has benefited much from the two contracts.
According to the ministry, China remained the largest rice importer of Vietnamese rice in the first ten months, accounting for 34.49% of the total.
Besides, Vietnam sold more rice to other markets such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
The ministry’s Statistics and Informatics Center forecast Vietnam would export 6.8 million tons of rice this year, around 800,000 tons higher than the full-year target announced in September.
The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said its member enterprises had signed contracts to export at least 7.6 million tons of rice of different varieties in the year to October.