Vietnam Rice Export Prices Firmly Rise

Vietnam Rice Export Prices Firmly Rise

Prices of Vietnamese rice for exports are estimated to rise in the future following the limitation on Vietnamese rice exports and stronger demands in the world market, the Ministry of Trade announced on December 29.

The higher demands from Iraq, Japan and the Philippines have led to a rise in offering index of Vietnamese rice by US$2-5 per tonne in recent days, the ministry said, adding that in 2004 the Vietnamese rice export index has soared by 23 per cent on-year.

Currently, the export prices of Vietnamese rice are offering at around US$240 a ton of 5 per cent broken while 25 per cent is US$228 per tonne, relatively up by US$1 per tonne against last week, however, still US$32-38 per tonne lower than that of Thai rice.

The ministry forecast that the world's rice prices will be firmly high next year due to serious droughts in major rice exporting countries while the demands from Asia are increasing. Thailand, the world’s largest rice exporter, is to ship only around 8.5 million tonnes of rice in 2005, down from 10 million tonnes this year. China and India also reduce rice shipments next year.

In December this year, the paddy prices in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam's largest rice growing area, increased by VND100-150 per kilogram, due to the affects of droughts while local traders carried their new contracts for early 2005. In northern Vietnam, the paddy indexes also risen by VND50-100 per kilogram.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that southern farmers have so far cultivated around 1.4 million hectares of main winter-spring crop, accounting for 76.3 per cent of total area. However, with the current droughts nationwide, Vietnam is estimated to produce around 35.8-36 million tonnes of paddy this year.

Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter after Thailand, has this year shipped around 4.055 million tonnes of rice valued at US$941 million, up 6.3 per cent on-year in volume and 30.6 per cent on-year in value, according to the Government Statistics Office.

• L.D