A crane lowers bags of rice into a cargo ship. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has released a list of 205 local traders nationwide who were certified as eligible for rice exports as of January 18 – PHOTO: VNA

According to the list, the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho recorded the highest number of licensed rice exporters at 43. HCMC ranked second with 38 eligible rice exporters, followed by the provinces of Long An, An Giang, Dong Thap, Tien Giang and Hanoi City at 25, 20, 18, 8 and 8, respectively.

Besides, some other localities saw only one licensed rice exporter, such as Dak Nong, Tra Vinh, Tay Ninh, Binh Dinh, Binh Duong and Ha Tinh.

Data from the ministry showed that the country’s rice exports last year faced a number of difficulties mainly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Government and the ministry had adopted multiple measures to concurrently fight the deadly disease, ensure national food security and remove obstacles facing rice export activities, aimed at helping local farmers consume rice at the most reasonable volumes and prices.

As a result, national food security was ensured last year, even when the coronavirus outbreak hit the country and foreign countries significantly increased purchases of Vietnamese rice.

The country in 2020 exported 6.15 million tons of rice worth some US$3.07 billion, dipping around 3.5% in volume due to food security purposes but up 9.3% in value against the 2019 figures. Also, the export price of Vietnamese rice reached US$499 per ton, rising 13.3% compared to that of 2019. This is the highest price of rice for export in recent years, which has brought about benefits to local rice farmers.

The country is switching to exporting more fragrant and high-quality rice at a higher price and added value. Furthermore, local rice farmers and traders have paid much attention to improving the quality of rice, origin traceability as well as adopted measures to meet the requirements of demanding markets such as the European Union, South Korea and the United States. SGT