The Mekong Delta province of Long An will host the third Vietnam Rice Festival from December 18-24. 

Vietnam shipped nearly 5 million tonnes of rice abroad in the first nine months of this year, earning 2.5 billion USD, up 8.5 percent in volume and 23.2 percent in value year-on-year. 

The festival will feature various activities, including an exhibition on Vietnamese rice exports, a workshop on saltwater intrusion, drought and solutions to protect rice production from natural disasters, and a rice contest. 

The festival will be jointly held by Mekong Delta localities, the Vietnam Food Association, the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation and some ministries and agencies. 

It aims to honour and improve the position of Vietnamese rice in the world and promote rice production and export, contributing to local socio-economic development and improvement of people’s living standards. 

The first edition of the festival was held in 2009 in Hau Giang province and the second was hosted by Soc Trang province. 

Vietnam shipped nearly 5 million tonnes of rice abroad in the first nine months of this year, earning 2.5 billion USD, up 8.5 percent in volume and 23.2 percent in value year-on-year, statistics show.

China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 23.2 percent of the total, according to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Analysts predicted that the domestic rice market would thrive in the fourth quarter of this year thanks to increasing demand from such importers as the Philippines, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Nigeria and Egypt.-VNA