Vietnamplus

After setting record-high imports this year, the Philippines plans to buy less rice from foreign markets next year amid excessive supply coupled with improvement in local production.

The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, the country’s largest rice producer, is expected to produce 4.3 million tonnes of paddy this year, up more than 35,200 tonnes against last year, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Mekong Delta, the country’s rice granary, will see summer – autumn rice output increase by 150,000 tonnes this year, the Plant Cultivation Department has estimated.

Vietnam exported 4.01 million tonnes of rice worth 1.73 billion USD in the first seven months of 2019, up 2.1 percent in volume but down 14.3 percent in value year on year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The agriculture sector posted a year-on-year growth of 2.39 percent in the first half of 2019, despite facing numerous difficulties like global economic slowdown, impacts from US-China trade war, unfavourable weather, and especially the African swine fever.

The development of transport infrastructure connecting the Mekong Delta and the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City should be accelerated in the coming time by increasing investment capital from both local budget and society, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan has said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a conference reviewing two-year implementation of the Government’s Resolution 120/NQ-CP on climate resilient and sustainable development of the Mekong Delta region.

The agricultural production is in dire need of the international community’s assistance in dealing with climate change, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), together with relevant ministries and agencies, is accelerating the building of a master plan for the Mekong Delta’s sustainable development in adaption to climate change to 2030 with a vision to 2050.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment has told its rice farmers to refrain from planting crops as the country is in the midst of a drought heightened by record temperatures due to this year’s El Nino phenomenon.

More Vietnamese businesses should be shifting to processing and exporting vegetables and fruits, which has high demand worldwide, Vo Mai, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Gardening Association, has said.

The establishment of a logistics centre in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho will make active contributions to stable and sustainable economic development in the region, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Truong Quang Hoai Nam said at a workshop held in the city on February 20.

Nearly the entire Mekong Delta region of Vietnam – an area that makes up 50 percent of the national rice output, 65 percent of seafood, and 70 percent of fruit – could sink underwater by the year 2100, scientists from the Netherlands’ Utrecht University have warned.

The Prime Minister has agreed in principle the organisation of the forum on sustainable and climate-resilient development of the Mekong Delta in October 2019.

Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.08 percent in 2018, the highest in the past 11 years, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on December 27.

Despite a reduction of more than 17,000 hectares in cultivating land, rice production in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap in 2018 rose 120,000 tonnes compared to the previous year to 3.32 million tonnes.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association has been upbeat about rice shipment prospects in the second half of this year.

The summer-autumn rice crop in southern localities has yielded a good harvest, heard a conference held in the Mekong Delta province of Tay Ninh on July 20.

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang should strive further to apply advanced technology so as to promote safe agricultural production and enhance farm produce exports.

A conference on investment and start-up promotion will take place in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang on June 19, aiming to call for investments to the locality.