The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that after witnessing minus growth rates in the first two months of the year, rice exports in March unexpectedly soared with export turnover reaching $480 million, an increase of 82.6 percent over February.

At present, Vietnam’s 5 percent broken rice is selling at $450 per ton, an increase of $5 per ton over the $440-445 per ton earlier this month. 

Businesses said the rice prices went up because shipments to China have recovered, while Indonesia is buying more rice to improve its national reserves.

As of the end of March, Vietnam had exported 1.79 million tons of rice, earning $952 million, up 19.3 percent in quantity and 30.2 percent in value in comparison with the same period in 2022.

The average export price in the first three months of the year was $531 per ton, up by 9.2 percent over the same period last year.

The Philippines was the biggest consumer of Vietnam’s rice in the first two months of the year with 43.3 percent of market share. 

Nearly 402,000 tons of rice were exported to the market during that time, which brought turnover of $204.7 million, a 25 percent decrease in quantity and 17.8 percent in value compared with the same period last year.

Analysts commented that Vietnam’s rice unexpectedly is selling for good prices in Asian markets. Rice exports to China in the first two months of 2023 brought turnover of $90 million, up 120.5 percent, while exports to Singapore increased by 40.6 percent.

However, the sharpest increase was seen in the Indonesian market, which consumed $67.3 million worth of Vietnam’s rice in the first two months. This represented a record high growth rate of 30,352 percent compared with the first two months of 2022. Indonesia now consumes 14.3 percent of Vietnam’s total rice exports.

Vietnam Trade Office in Indonesia cited Indonesia's Ministry of Trade as saying that Indonesia plans to import 2 million tons of rice for national reserves in 2023.

The imports will be used for the rice price stabilization program, support to 21.53 million poor households and other purposes. Preum Bulog is going to import 500,000 tons as soon as possible. This is a great opportunity for Vietnam to boost rice exports to Indonesia.

In mid-February, Quang Tri province exported 15 tons of organic rice to Europe for $1,800 per ton. Quang Tri Organic Agro Products, the exporter, plans to export 30-50 tons of organic rice to Europe each month.

Tam An