Vietnam exported an estimated 4.88 million tonnes of rice this year, earning 2.2 billion USD, down 25.8 percent in volume and 21.2 percent in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. 

In December alone, 399,000 tonnes of rice worth 181 million USD were shipped abroad. 

China remains the largest rice importer of Vietnam with a market share of 35.9 percent. In the past 11 months, Vietnam shipped 1.61 million tonnes worth 722.2 million USD to the country, down 20.5 percent in volume and 11.7 percent in value from 2015. 

Ghana is Vietnam’s second largest rice importer with an 11.1 percent market share. 

Markets with strong drops in Vietnamese rice imports are the Philippines (down 65 percent), Malaysia (48 percent), the US (33 percent), Singapore (30.7 percent), Indonesia (22 percent), the Ivory Coast (21.5 percent), and Hong Kong (19 percent). 

The falling rice export is attributable to prolonging El Nino phenomenon in the central and Central Highlands, saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta, and flooding in the north, the central and the Central Highlands. 

Rice production this year decreased in both cultivation area and output, particularly in the south. 

The total rice output is estimated at 43.6 million tonnes, down 3.3 percent from last year.

VNA