Rice exports to US skyrocket over five months

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), US consumers are highly interested in fragrant and long-grain rice such as Vietnamese rice ST25, the world’s best rice variety, which has been exported to this market for nearly two years.

The Philippines remains the largest consumer of Vietnamese rise, accounting for 43.6% of the market share. It imported 1.27 million tonnes of rice worth over US$589 million from Vietnam in the first five months of this year, up 34.8% in volume and 17.7% in value against the same period from last year.

Elsewhere, the European Union has also increased imports of high-quality Vietnamese rice as Loc Troi Group JSC exported approximately 500 tonnes of rice labelled with its own brand name “Com Vietnam Rice” to Germany, the Netherlands, and France in June.

Despite its increasing market share in the US and European markets, Vietnamese rice has faced numerous challenges from regional rivals such as Thailand and India that are offering rice at cheap prices due to depreciation of their currencies.

At present, Thailand's 5% broken rice is sold at between US$420 and US$425 per tonne, a drop of US$25 from the previous month, while the similar rice from India is being traded at between US$355 and US$360 per tonne, down US$2 from the beginning of the month.

Vietnam's 5% broken rice is currently priced at between US$418 and US$423 per tonne, up US$3 from last month.

Vietnamese businesses exported 3.52 million tonnes of rice worth US$1.72 billion during the first half of the year, representing annual rises of 16.2% in volume and 4.6% in value.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) forecast that despite fluctuations in import markets and fierce competition, Vietnamese rice exports would hit between 6 – 6.2 million tonnes, worth over US$3.2 billion this year, equivalent to the figure recorded in 2020 and 2021.