Do Ha Nam, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam FoodAssociation, said at a conference about rice trade between Vietnam and China inHo Chi Minh City on May 6 that Vietnamese exporters were struggling to accessthe Chinese market despite China's massive demand for rice.
Since 2018, Vietnam’s rice exports to China havedropped to 1.3 million tonnes, down from a record high of 3 milliontonnes.
Nam attributed the decline to changes in China’simport policies which required firms to be licensed to export tothe market.
“We need to be regularly updated with marketinformation to have measures to boost rice exports to China,” Nam said.
He said he hoped that more firms would belicensed to export rice to China in the near future, adding that many firmscould now meet China’s requirements.
At the moment, only 22 Vietnamese firms arelicensed to sell rice in China.
Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Trung AnHi-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said Vietnamese export firmsneed to be provided with more detailed information about China’s rice importdemand – including consumption volume and rice types – to craftappropriate production plans.
The conference was held within the framework ofa four-day exchange programme between Vietnam and China focusing on ricetrade, jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and China’s foodassociations as more than a dozen Chinese rice import firms are visiting Vietnamfrom May 6-10.
Tran Quoc Toan, Deputy Director of theImport-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said theprogramme was a significant opportunity for Vietnamese firms to learnabout the Chinese market’s demand for rice, network with Chinese importersand reduce intermediary stages in the export process.
Vietnam’s rice exports in the Januaryto April period were estimated at 2.03 million tonnes, worth 866million USD, down by 7.9 percent in volume and 21.7 percent in value over thesame period last year.
The average rice export price dropped by 72.7 USDper tonne to 430.1 USD.
Vietnam’s rice exports to China in the periodreached only 43,300 tonnes, worth 20.8 million USD, representing drops of 89.5percent in volume and 90.4 percent in value.-VNS/VNA