RICE EXPORTS SET A NEW RECORD, BRINGING IN 1.5 BILLION USD AFTER ONLY 4 MONTHS

According to data from the General Department of Customs, our country's rice exports in April reached more than 1 million tons, worth $545.85 million, surpassing the old record of 961,608 tons, worth $509 million, compared to the same period last year. It have increased 87.9% in volume and nearly doubled in value.

RICE EXPORTS SET A NEW RECORD, BRINGING IN 1.5 BILLION USD AFTER ONLY 4 MONTHS

By the end of April, rice exports had reached nearly 2.9 million tons, with a turnover of more than 1.5 billion USD, up 40.7% in volume and 51.6% in turnover over the same period last year. 2022. Not only increasing in quantity, Vietnam's rice price is at a high level in recent years and the structure of exported rice varieties has also changed positively.

Rice exports continuously break records

In the context that many key export industries have dropped sharply at double digits, the rice industry is emerging as a bright spot in the picture of our country's commodity exports.

According to data from the General Department of Customs, our country's rice exports in April reached more than 1 million tons, worth $545.85 million, surpassing the old record of 961,608 tons, worth $509 million, compared to the same period last year. It have increased 87.9% in volume and nearly doubled in value.

For this result, by the end of April, our country's rice export has reached nearly 2.9 million tons, with a turnover of more than 1.5 billion USD, up 40.7% in volume and 51.6% in turnover compared to the same period in 2022. This is also the highest number recorded by the rice industry in the first 4 months of the year so far.

In the first 4 months of this year, Vietnam's export rice price also increased by 7.8% over the same period last year to an average of 527 USD/ton

 Source: Compiled from data of the General Department of Customs

Assessing the situation of rice exports in recent years, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that not only increased in quantity, the price of Vietnamese rice was at a high level in the past few years. In recent years, the structure of exported rice has also changed positively.

"Fragrance rice products reach 530-540 USD/ton, the highest level ever. In terms of type structure, currently popular white rice accounts for more than 50% of export turnover, however, the proportion of fragrant rice and rice is still high. Sticky rice, as well as rice fortified with micronutrients, is growing rapidly, for example, fragrant rice for export accounts for more than 25% of rice stocks.

That shows the orientation to improve the quality of exported rice instead of chasing the quantity. This is also a factor for Vietnam to access difficult and highly trade-protective markets such as the EU, Japan, and South Korea.

It is known that white rice currently accounts for more than 57% of our country's rice export volume in the first 4 months of the year with 1.7 million tons, up 74.1% over the same period last year. The largest white rice export markets are the Philippines, Indonesia...

Vietnam's export of sticky rice also increased sharply by 84.6% to more than 368 thousand tons after the top consumer market, China, increased purchases again.

In addition, the amount of Japanese rice and brown rice, rice fortified with micronutrients also increased by 28.3% and 67.7%, respectively. Particularly, the export of fragrant rice group (Jasmine, DT8, KDM, ST24, ST25...) decreased slightly by 3.5% over the same period but the turnover still increased by 4%.

To maintain the consumption market, the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade recommended that businesses need to maintain stable rice quality, closely follow the requirements of quality and food safety of each market, increase the export of quality rice for high to increase the value of rice exports.

 Regarding the consumption market, political and economic uncertainties along with extreme weather conditions are prompting many countries around the world to increase their food forecasts, including Vietnam's largest rice consumer. , including the Philippines, China and Indonesia.

The Philippines alone spent more than 647.5 million USD to import nearly 1.3 million tons of Vietnamese rice in the first four months of this year, up 40.6% in volume and 53.4% in value over the same period last year. This Southeast Asian neighbor is Vietnam's largest rice export market, accounting for 44.4% in volume and 42.4% in value.

Rice exports to the second largest market, China, also increased to the highest level in the past 5 years, reaching 507,066 tons, up 70.8% over the same period in 2022 and accounting for 17.5% of the market share. China's demand has rebounded strongly after the country reopened its economy earlier this year after nearly three years of closure to combat the COVID-19 epidemic.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has risen to the third position in Vietnam's rice export market in the past 4 months with a volume of 306,496 tons, up 2,498% (26 times) over the same period last year and accounting for 10.6 % market share. In April alone, the amount of rice exported to this market reached 157,909 tons, up 1.338% compared to April 2022.

The opportunity to export rice to Indonesia is becoming more and more open when at the end of March, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade said that the country will import 2 million tons of rice for national reserve in 2023, of which 500,000 tons will be made to show up as soon as possible. The national reserve of imported rice will be used in the program to stabilize rice prices, support rice for 21.53 million poor households and use for other purposes.

In addition to the above markets, Malaysia, Singapore, and Mozambique are also promoting rice imports from Vietnam. In particular, exports to the European Union (EU) also recorded high growth at triple digits in some markets such as Belgium up 160.5%, Spain up 119.3%, Poland up 93 .7%, the Netherlands up 49.1%...

However, the amount of rice exported to the two top consuming markets in Africa, Gana and Ivory Coast, decreased by 22.7% and 54.3%, respectively.

Supply is exhausted, will rice exports cool down?

Demand for rice in the international market is still high when many forecasts show that El Nino weather phenomenon will appear in the second half of 2023, increasing the risk of rice supply in Asia.

However, rice exports are likely to cool down in the near future because the supply from the winter-spring crop is not much, while the amount of rice for export this year is also expected to be lower than last year.

Mr. Do Ha Nam, Chairman of the Vietnam Food Association, said that the world's demand this year is very large, businesses can sell at a good price. However, he said that a good price may not help Vietnam's rice export turnover to set a record because this year's export volume may decrease.

“In general terms, Vietnam usually exports about 6.3-6.5 million tons of rice/year which is good last year. In 2022, rice exports will reach 7.1 million tons, which means this year's inventories will be low and this number will be difficult to reach in 2023.

No matter how much the price goes up, it is difficult to grow by 25%, I think that the export turnover of 3.5 billion USD in 2022 is a success, "said Mr. Do Ha Nam.

According to Thanh Nien Newspaper, recently, VFA officially proposed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to consider adjusting the rice export target in 2023 from 7 million tons to 6.1-6.3 million tons, due to a supply shortage.

Thus, after exporting 2.9 million tons (725,000 tons/month) in the first 4 months of the year, the amount of rice exported in the last 8 months of the year was only about 3.2-3.4 million tons (equivalent to 400,000 tons). - 425,000 tons/month).

Previously, the Ministry of Industry and Trade expected that rice exports in 2023 could reach about 7 million tons with a turnover of 4 billion USD. Although the volume is lower than in 2022 (7.13 million tons), the turnover is much higher (3.45 billion USD).

According to analysis by Fitch Solutions, the global rice supply is in short supply due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well as unfavorable weather for crops in the world's leading rice producing countries. The organization predicts that the global rice market will be short of 8.7 million tons in the 2022-2023 crop year, the highest level since 2003-2004 and rice prices will remain high until 2024.