Vietnam Secures Contracts to Export 1Mln Tonnes of Rice This Year

Vietnam Secures Contracts to Export 1Mln Tonnes of Rice This Year

Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter after Thailand in 2004, has already signed contracts to export one million tonnes of rice since the beginning of 2005, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Local rice exporters won a contract to export 300,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines during the first days of February, the ministry said.

For the past month, local businesses also signed contracts to sell a further 200,000 tonnes of rice to Africa and Russia, the MARD said, adding that they have also reached other export deals with the Middle East and South American countries.

According to an MARD official, the world’s demand for rice, especially high-quality rice, is increasing. Vietnam targets to produce 36 million tonnes of rice and export 3.8-4 million tonnes of rice worth US$1 billion in 2005, the official said. In January this year, Vietnam exported around 250,000 tonnes of the rice products worth US$63 million.

This year, the Vietnam Food Association (Vietfood) would make sure all products are bought from the farmers while maintaining an increase in export value especially since exporting to Thailand has shortened the average distance we have to export the product. 

Vietfood currently gathers almost all large rice export enterprises nationwide. In 2004, 10 additional enterprises joined the association, making the total 81. Its members accounted for 94.16 per cent of the country’s total rice export value last year, a 3 per cent increase from 2003.

During the winter-spring crop of 2004-2005, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has distributed new kinds of rice for mass cultivation and has educated farmers in more technical processes to increase productivity, quality and export value.

The yield of the winter-spring crop this year is estimated at 8.2 million tonnes, of which 5 million tonnes will be rice, meaning that 2.3-2.5 million tonnes of rice will go to export.

So far this year, farmers in the south have cultivated around 1.7 million hectares of the main winter-spring rice crop.

• B.T