Continuous increases in the prices of rice in the Mekong Delta over the past time have excited local farmers as they have driven up farmers’ profits to 30 percent of their production costs.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said in many cities and provinces in the country’s granary, the prices of fresh and dry rice jumped by 25-35 percent compared to late June and early July.

According to Cao Van Ut in Tien Giang province’s Cai Lay district, with the current prices, farmers can get a net profit of 15-16 million VND from each hectare of rice.

Experts attributed the high rice prices to foreign countries’ increasing demands for importing Vietnamese rice.

Businesses are expected to export between 700,000 and 800,000 tonnes of rice in September, equal to the volume of August, said VFA Vice Chairman Pham Van Bay.

In Vietnam , rice remains the biggest hard currency earner in the group of agricultural products. In the first seven months of this year, the average rice price reached some 485 USD per tonne, representing a year-on-year rise of 4.8 percent.

High export rice prices raised the country’s rice export turnover in the first eight months to 2.4 billion USD, up 12.8 percent over the same period last year.

In the period, the country shipped over 5 million tonnes of rice, up 8.2 percent year-on-year./.