Vietnam seeks more rice export markets

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) held a meeting between trade counsellors and domestic rice enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City on February 22 to discuss measures to expand export markets for Vietnamese rice in 2016. 

China will be the main rice export market of Vietnam in 2016
China will be the main rice export market of Vietnam in 2016

Vietnam exported nearly 6.6 million tonnes of rice in 2015 worth over US$2.8 billion, up 4% in terms of volume but down 4.5% in terms of value compared to 2014.

It is forecast that Vietnamese rice exports in 2016 will face unpredictable developments due to impacts of the El Nino phenomenon, salt intrusion and the competition from large rice export countries including Thailand, India, and Pakistan among others.

The main rice export market of Vietnam in 2016 will be China which imported around 3.35 million tonnes of Vietnamese rice in 2015, accounting for 54% of China's total rice import.

The large volume of Vietnamese rice exported to China will pose a high risk to Vietnam, requiring Vietnamese rice enterprises to expand into other markets including Europe, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and others to reduce the dependence on China.

However, such markets use premium rice products while Vietnam has exported only 27% of high quality rice and Vietnamese rice has yet to build a famous brand in addition to limited trade promotion activities.

Thus, it is important to improve the quality of Vietnamese rice, boost the building of brand and trade promotion.

MoIT Deputy Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that domestic rice exporters still lack information on rice markets, particularly information on new markets, asking for more support and co-operation from trade counsellors in foreign countries and authorised agencies to help domestic rice firms to promote export. The MoIT also needs to renew trade promotion activities in accordance with specific markets, Anh noted.

In the coming time, the MoIT will increase the dissemination of information on free trade agreements to farmers and rice exporters to help raise their competitiveness and take advantage of such agreements, Deputy Minister Anh added.