The Ministry of Industry and Trade has assured that there will besufficient rice for export from now to the end of the year, with morethan 1 million tonnes expected to be ready for export next year.
The ministry said the country expects to harvest about 3.7 milliontonnes of rice during the remaining months of this year, adding thatrice stockpiles are estimated at about 1.44 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, rice domestic consumption would total around 2.18 milliontonnes in the last three months of the year and some 1.54 million tonnesof rice will be delivered under signed export contracts, leaving morethan 1 million tonnes in stock.
The country exported around471,000 tonnes of rice in September, bringing home 214 million USD. Thisfell far short of the country’s 650,000-tonne target, itself loweredfrom the 750,000-tonne goal previously set by the Vietnam FoodAssociation (VFA).
In the first ninemonths of this year, rice export saw decreases of 14.3 percent involume and 16.7 percent in value with 5.35 million tonnes shipped abroadworth 2.35 billion USD.
China remainsVietnam ’s largest rice importer, consuming 1.62 million tonnes or 31.4percent of the country’s total rice export turnover.
Experts forecast that the fourth quarter will be gloomy for thecountry’s rice exporters, saying Vietnamese businesses are finding ithard to seek new contracts.
They pointed toIndia ’s heightened efforts to become the world’s top rice exporter,Thailand ’s increasing rice stockpiles and China ’s move to reducerice imports this year.
The VFA has lowered itsrice export target for 2013 to between 7 - 7.2 million tonnes from theinitial 7.5 million tonnes due to low export volume and fallingprices.-VNA
