VietNamNet Bridge – The rice growing area, output and export value indexes in 2011 all are higher than that of 2010. However, experts have warned that difficulties would come with the 2011-2012 crops due to the floods.

In 2011: farmers have bountiful crops, businesses have bumper exports

According to Pham Van Du, a senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), despite a lot of difficulties, especially the changeable climate and the high floods, the rice field area and the rice output of the southern region in 2011 are still higher than the targeted levels.

In 2011, Vietnam has 4.5 million hectares of rice growing fields, an increase of 135,000 hectares over 2011. Meanwhile, the total output is expected to reach 24,933 million tons, up by 1.3 million tons over 2010. The Mekong Delta alone has the output of 23 million tons, or 1.165 million tons higher than the previous year.

Nguyen Van Dong, Director of the Hau Giang provincial Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2011, the province puts out 1.2 million tons of rice; the highest volume so far, an increase of 100,000 tons over the previous year. The figure represents the increase of 400,000 tons if compared with the rice output gained 8 years ago, when Hau Giang was split from Can Tho.

Since Mekong Delta is the main supplier of rice for export, it is understandable why the high output in the delta has led to the high exports. Pham Van Bay, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Food Association VFA, said that Vietnam has exported 6.2 million tons of rice so far this year, worth 3 billion dollars. The export price is 482 dollars per ton on average, or 8 percent higher than the same period of the last year.

Especially, Vietnam has exported 400,000 tons of fragrant rice at 700 dollars per ton on average. Vietnamese rice nearly dominates the Hong Kong’s fragrant rice market which was once considered the market of Thai exporters. The country hopes to export 500,000-600,000 tons or fragrant rice the next year.

Challenges ahead

Speaking at the conference on preliminarily reviewing the rice production and export in 2011, VFA’s Deputy Chair Pham Van Bay, said that Vietnam expects to export 6.5 million tons or rice in 2012.

However, experts have warned that Vietnam would have to face a lot of big difficulties due to the changeable weather and insects.

Tran Gia Kham, Chief of the Southern Representative Office of the General Department of Irrigation under MARD, said that the flood waters in 2011 are forecast to the same with 2000. However, the problem is that the floods would last for long time and go down slowly. The flood water level is now still at the height above the third alert level in some areas.

Experts also say that though this could be seen a big opportunity for farmers to grow rice, because the flood water brings alluvium to the rice fields, but this would badly affect the production schedule.

“The last flood has blown off 1.7 kilometers of dykes in Dong Thap province and hundreds of kilometers of embankment in the provinces of An Giang, Long An, Dong Thap and Vinh Long,” Tram said.

In 2011, the floods in Mekong Delta damaged 7000 hectares of rice fields, badly affecting the rice output of the rice granary.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Huu Huan, Head of the Plant Protection Department, has warned that Mekong Delta would face two big problems in 2012 which would influence the rice productivity, including the insects and the overuse of pesticide which causes the ecological imbalance.

Source: TBKTSG