Export Rice Prices Bounce Back on Higher Demand

Export Rice Prices Bounce Back on Higher Demand

The price of rice for exports from Vietnam, the world’s second largest rice exporter after Thailand, has bounced back on the international market due to increased demand, according to the Trade Ministry’s Information Center.

In Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong River Delta region, the country's largest rice growing area, 5 per cent broken rice was on June 28 offered at US$240, 10 per cent at US$238, 15 per cent at US$232 and 25 per cent at US$227 a ton, up US$2 against previous day.

The current prices, however, were US$2-3 a ton lower than that of last week and US$15-19 lower against early June, the ministry said

The major reason for the slight increase in Vietnamese rice export prices were attributed to the higher demands from Africa. Meanwhile, several rice importers intended to lower Vietnamese rice prices as farmers in the Mekong Delta region, the country’s largest rice growing area, are entering the main harvests.

The paddy rice prices in the region also stood low at VND2,000-2,050 a kilo, down by VND50-100 a kilo against last week due to the affects of low export prices.

Vietnamese rice exporters sold abroad around 2.659 million tons of rice products worth US$739 million in the first six months of this year, up 10.6 per cent on-year in volume and 34.5 per cent on-year in value, according to the Government Statistics Office.

In related news, Farmers in northern Vietnam have harvested winter-spring rice on 800,000 hectares, or 70 per cent of the total cultivated acreage, with the estimated output at 6.8 million tons, 300,000 tons more than planned, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Agriculture Department has reported.

In this year's winter-spring rice crop, the northern region obtained an average yield of 5.8 tons per hectare, equal to the last crop's yield. Nam Dinh province is expected to harvest an average rice yield of 8 tons per hectare; Hai Phong, 6.85 tons, Ha Tay and Ninh Binh, 6.8 tons and Nghe An 6.25 tons.

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