Vietnam earns US$2.2 billion from rice export this year
Vietnam exported an estimated 4.88 million tonnes of rice this year, earning US$2.2 billion, down 25.8% in volume and 21.2% in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In December alone, 399,000 tonnes of rice worth US$181 million were shipped abroad.
China remains the largest rice importer of Vietnam with a market share of 35.9%. In the past 11 months, Vietnam shipped 1.61 million tonnes worth US$722.2 million to the country, down 20.5% in volume and 11.7% in value from 2015.
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Ghana is Vietnam’s second largest rice importer with an 11.1% market share.
Markets with strong drops in Vietnamese rice imports are the Philippines (down 65%), Malaysia (48%), the US (33%), Singapore (30.7%), Indonesia (22%), the Ivory Coast (21.5%), and Hong Kong (19%).
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% from last year.
