Harvesting rice by using a combine harvester (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam shipped 5.05 million tonnes of riceworth 2.25 billion USD in the first ten months of 2017, up 22.3 percent involume and 21.1 percent in value year on year, said the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development.
The country earned 206 million USD fromexporting 430,000 tonnes of rice in October alone.
From January to October, China remained thebiggest importer of Vietnamese rice when it was the destination of 39.3 percentof Vietnam’s exported rice. It is followed by the Philippines (9.6 percent) andMalaysia (8 percent).
According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA),regional countries’ demand for imported rice will rise sharply in the lastmonths of the year. The recent serious flooding in Bangladesh damaged about1million tonnes of rice in this country, turning the South Asian nation into abig rice importer with a forecast volume of up to 1.5 million tonnes in 2017.
[Vietnam to reform rice production, improve exports]
The Philippines’s rice stockpile declined,forcing its Government to step up purchasing rice. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka ispredicted to import 650,000 tonnes of rice this year, compared to just 60,000tonnes in 2016. African markets are also recovering their rice import, theassociation said.
Amid positive signs like a strong increase inthe number of contracts registered for export in the remaining months, the VFAraised the rice export target this year from 5.2 million tonnes to 5.6 milliontonnes.-VNA
VNA
