A staff member introduces Vietnamese rice products at the Rice News Convention at Ariyana International Convention Centre in Da Nang city. (Photo: VNA) Nam said Vietnam’s rice export hit a record 8.3 million tonnes in2023, the highest volume since the country started exporting rice in 1989, ofwhich the percentage of high value and speciality rice was increased, earning 4.7billion USD, a 38.4% increase in value from last year.
“Asia is seen as a major market share of our rice export, butAmerica, Europe, the Middle East and Australia have emerged as new importers ofViệt Nam’s rice in recent year. The Philippines became the largest importerwhen it took a 34% share (2.87 million tonnes) of Vietnam’s rice exportturn-over in 2023,” Nam said at a panel discussion.
“The rice brands ST24, ST25, Jasmin 85, Japonica and sticky ricehave become key leading products in the export growth in 2019-23."
He said Indonesia outclassed China as the second largest importerof Vietnam rice after the Philippines, while Malaysia, Japan, Germany andSweden added to the list of new importers.
Pham Dat, a business manager of Amprotek, an inspection andanalysing company in HCM City, said Vietnam’s rice has gradually penetrated thePhilippines in the recent three years, accounting for 80% of rice importturnover.
She said previously, Thailand provided 90% of rice import for the Philippines,but Vietnam has now occupied 80% of the Filipino rice market.
“Rice of Vietnam is a favourite product for Philippines consumers in terms ofcompetitive price and quality. New varieties were grown, with advanced technologyused in farming, processing and post-harvest,” Dat said.
“An average price of 650 USD per tonne offers a smooth advantagefor Vietnam’s rice to access selective markets. Marketing solutions have beenapproaching closer to consumers’ needs in different markets, helping Việt Nam’srice earn a successful market share in stiff competition,” she said.
Although exporting to 54 countries over the world, rice of Vietnam has stillbeen struggling to reduce input costs and loss ratio during processing andstorage to gain better advantage in market occupation.
“It requires more active marketing action and joint solutions fromVietnamese farmers, exporters and policy-makers in creating the best way forrice export. Investment and support policies in post-harvest technology andbank loans are still limited,” she explained.
She said some rice producers have introduced varieties, such as red rice andpremium long grain, that help draw health-conscious customers.
Desh Ratna, Southeast Asia regional head of Valency International, aninternational commodity trading house, said Vietnam’s rice quality has beenimproved recently, and the rice export market is expected to increase in thecoming time as India has banned exporting rice.
He said Vietnam and Thailand have opportunities to expand market share inthe absence of India, a big competitor in the world rice market.
Le Anh Nam, head of rice export division of Tan Long Group, said investment intechnology, market access and premium production would help local companiesexpand added value and sustainable growth.
He said the group earned about 120 million USD for exporting 200,000 tonneslast year, and it expects to increase to 300,000 tonnes in 2024.
“We invested 70 million USD in a Europe-based fully automatic Hanh Phuc RiceMill, the largest such facility in Asia, for processing a maximum 240,000-tonnestorage capacity. The group also uses a cooling system to store grain foryear-around production,” Nam said.
“The group operates a system of 60 rice mills nationwide to meet the 2024target. We plan to export 1,500 tonnes of the premium rice to Japan wherethe price is 50 USD higher than an average export value of other riceproducts,” he shared.
Rice News Convention, organised for the first time in Vietnam, is a brand-newinitiative by the SS Rice News team among efforts to build a network ofrice market participants tuned to the latest developments in the global ricemarket.
Organisers of the convention said it aims to bring together all elements of theglobal rice market, from farm to fork, with the event's primary aim to bringindustry participants from across the supply chain supporting the world ricetrade for the opportunity to gain insights on market developments, andunderstand the risks and opportunities from an event that aims to build abetter awareness as well as to improve communications within the rice tradingcommunity.
The Vietnam Food Association unveiled at the convention that Vietnam wouldproduce 43.5 million tonnes of rice in 2024, of which more than 7 milliontonnes are for export, for revenue of 5.3 billion USD./.
VNA
