Vietnam’s export of rice increased drastically by 113.2 per cent on year in value and 103.6 per cent in volume in the first two months of 2009 at the fall of almost all of agricultural products, figures provided by the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed.
The GSO said in Jan-Feb period, Vietnam exported 919,000 tons of rice, earning US$399 million, of which export in February doubled that in January to 650,000 tons worth US$290 million.
Vietnamese companies have signed contracts to export 3.1 million tons of rice in the first half of this year, meaning that they will deliver nearly 2.2 million tons by the end of June.
In the second half, the companies will mainly buy summer-autumn and autumn-winter paddy for export, according to the meeting on boosting rice production and consumption in Mekong Delta held in An Giang February 24.
The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has recently raised floor export price of Vietnamese rice for delivery in July and August 2009. Accordingly, lowest price for 5 per cent broken rice will be US$460/ton; for 10 per cent broken rice, US$450/ton; for 15 per cent broken rice, US$430/ton; and for 25 per cent broken rice, US$400/ton.
At the meeting, the Vietnam Food Association also released new figures of Vietnam’s rice export last year, in which the country exported 4.679 million tons of rice worth US$2.663 billion, FOB, or US$2.855 billion, CIF, up 3.37 per cent in volume and 99.04 per cent in value from previous year.
In 2008, export price of rice was averaging at US$569.23/ton. (GSO February Edition, Vietnam Economic Times Feb 26 p16)
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