A promising outlook is expected for Viet Nam’s rice exports in 2020 thanks to the positive impacts of the new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as the change in the supply and demand of the world market.

Positive prospects for Viet Nam’s rice exports in 2020

At a recent meeting to discuss the situation of rice exports in 2020, the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) reported notable achievements in Viet Nam’s rice exports last year.

Specifically, the country Nam exported 6.37 million tons of rice in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%.  This was considered a success in the context of fierce competition and redundant rice supplies. (Even Thailand, a large rice exporter, saw a 32% decline in its export volume compared to the previous year).

The Philippines was the largest importer of Vietnamese rice with a value of $885 million, a year-on-year rise of 92.58%.

Markets with strong growth in rice export value included Senegal (98%), the Ivory Coast (78.6%), Chinese Taipei (3%), Hong Kong, China (28.3%) and Tanzania (26.6%).

Viet Nam’s rice has been exported to 150 countries and territories around the world.

For a long time, rice has been a strategic crop in Viet Nam’s food security. Over the past decades, the Government has been striving to increase rice production in service of both domestic needs and exports.

The Prime Minister has also approved a strategy on the development of Viet Nam’s rice export markets in the 2017-2020 period, with orientation toward 2030.

Developing the rice export markets aims to concretize and is associated with the implementation of the commodity import-export strategy during 2011-2020, with a vision to 2030; the international economic integration strategy for the agriculture and rural development sector until 2030; the project on developing regional markets in the period of 2015-2020, with orientation toward 2030; the project on restructuring agriculture higher value added and sustainable development; the project on restructuring Viet Nam’s rice industry until 2020, with a vision to 2030; and the project on developing Vietnamese rice brand until 2020, with a vision to 2030.

A promising outlook for rice exports in 2020

Currently, Viet Nam is seizing a number of advantages thanks to the impacts of the new-generation FTAs signed with the Republic of Korea (RoK) and member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). 

Specifically, Viet Nam will be granted an export quota of 55,000 tons of rice to the RoK in 2020, while the CPTPP market, including Mexico, also promises many positive prospects. 

In particular, the European Union-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement has recently been ratified by the European Parliament. With the EVFTA likely to come into force this year, Viet Nam will have an additional quota of 40,000 tons of rice to the EU market (as committed, the EVFTA will grant a 85,000-ton quota to Vietnamese rice of various types).

As scheduled, Viet Nam will export over two million tons of rice to the Philippines in 2020. 

In addition, the African market and Malaysia will import one million tons and 500,000 tons of rice from Viet Nam annually.

In 2019, Viet Nam’s rice industry achieved many impressive results, earning US$2.7 billion from the exports of more than 6.3 million tons of rice. An important highlight is that the country’s ST25 rice was voted as the best rice in the world. 

The ST25 rice fever has breathed a new breeze into the rice market, both at home and abroad. 

Undoubtedly, the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic will affect Viet Nam’s rice exports, but the impacts will not be significant, as the export volume to China only accounts for 7% of the total, equivalent to about 400,000 tons.

There is an optimistic signal for Viet Nam’s rice exports as in recent years, the proportion of fragrant and quality rice takes up over 80% of the country’s total export volume./.