Rice farming area, production and export value have increased sharply year-on-year, but next year’s performance is predicted to face many difficulties due to the impact of flooding, experts said at a seminar on Friday.
Many experts at the conference held in the Mekong Delta’s Hau Giang Province to review rice production in 2011 and the kickoff of the winter-spring crop said that this year’s rice business had fared quite well, but uncertainty is ahead.

Good crop and good sales

Pham Van Du, deputy director of the Cultivation Department, said despite the climate changes and high flooding, rice cultivation area and production in the southern area will likely surpass the target.

In particular, the total area under rice cultivation nationwide is over 4.5 million hectares, or up by 135,000 hectares against 2010, while rice yield is some 24.9 million tons, up by 1.3 million tons.

The Mekong Delta alone gained a high yield of 23 million tons, surging by 1.16 million tons over last year.

Nguyen Van Dong, director of Hau Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the province this year achieved the highest yield ever with 1.2 million tons, or up by 100,000 tons year-on-year.

Rice production in the southern area has a positive impact on export. Vietnam has shipped abroad some 6.2 million tons of rice since the year’s beginning to earn over US$3 billion, with the average price rising 8% over the same period last year to US$482 per ton.

As of end-October, rice export reached the highest figure in both volume and value, said Pham Van Bay, vice chair of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

Challenges ahead

Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, required local provinces to maintain the cultivation area and increase the productivity in the 2011-2012 rice crop.

However, many participants in the conference were concerned that next year’s rice crop could face many challenges caused by irregular climate and pests.

Tran Gia Kham, head of the Southern Division of the Department of Irrigation, said the floodwater level this year is as high as that in 2000. In addition, floodwater recedes slower and is still above the third-alarm level.

Despite the alluvium added to the fields, floodwater and the damaged dykes will delay the cultivation progress for the winter-spring crop.

Nguyen Huu Huan, deputy director of the Department of Plant Protection, warned the Mekong Delta of two risks, namely the brown planthopper epidemic causing grassy stunt and ragged stunt diseases and the overuse of pesticide on 40-day-old rice impacting the ecological balance and the rice crop next year.

* There is a high possibility that total rice export volume this year will surpass seven million tons as the nation had shipped 6.2 million tons as of the end of October, reported Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

“It is still too soon to say the total figure will reach 7.5 million tons but a volume of over 7 million tons is within reach compared to 6.8 million tons last year,” Nguyen Van Bay, vice chairman of the association, told the Daily.

Bay also explained the estimation came from the fact that local rice exporters as of October 27 sold 6.2 million tons overseas, earning US$3.06 billion, up almost 7.9% in volume and 23% in value year-on-year.

On average, local export rice is traded at US$482 a ton while some 370,000 tons of fragrant rice was bought at more than US$700 per ton by foreign traders.

India has enjoyed a good harvest, thus competing with Vietnam in the segment of cheap rice, whose price is about US$100 lower than that of Vietnam for one ton, noted Bay.

It is believed that Vietnam’s total shipment will fluctuate between 6.5 and 7 million tons next year, with around 400,000-500,000 tons being fragrant rice, added Bay.

VIR