Higher rice supply in the domestic market has made the export price of Vietnam’s broken rice drop to US$450 per tonne on June 19, the lowest level in the past two months.

The Vietnam News Agency reported that domestic supply is increasing due to a bumper summer-autumn rice crop. Vietnam can export 2.3-2.5 million tonnes of rice from this rice crop after ensuring sufficient domestic consumption.

The export price on June 4 hit the highest level of US$475 per tonne, as rainfall affected the harvest.

Meanwhile, India's export rice prices last week also dropped to the lowest level in two months due to weakness of the its currency rupee and lower rice demand. The prices of 5% broken parboiled rice in India fell to US$366-372 per tonne on June 18, the lowest level since March 26.

Prices of Thai 5% broken rice also plunged to US$505-525 per tonne on June 18 from US$505-533 per tonne the previous week.

According to the General Department of Customs, Vietnam in the first five months of this year gained growth in volume and value of rice exports compared to the same period last year.

Specifically, rice exports surged by 12% in volume to 3.09 million tonnes and by 26.6% in value to US$1.5 billion. While the average export price rose by 13% to US$485.1 per tonne.

In May, Vietnam shipped 953,950 tonnes of rice, earning US$492.54 million while the average export price reached US$516.3 per tonne.

They were up 87% in volume, 93.6% in value and 3.6% in price compared to April. They also increased by 40.6%, 67.6% and 19.2%, respectively compared to May 2019.

During the first five months, Vietnam exported the most rice to the Philippines with a total volume of 1.3 million tonnes, earning US$598.6 million. Exports rose by 22.4% in volume and 41.4% in value year on year. 

Rice exports to the Philippines accounted for about 41% of the national rice export volume and about 40% of the national rice export value.

China was the second largest market with an export volume of 429,261 tonnes and an export value of US$257.4 million, accounting for about 14% of the total volume and 17.2% of total value. The exports increased by 92.4% in volume and 131.2% in value over the same period of last year.

Vietnam also gained strong growth to many markets, including Senegal (18.3 times), Indonesia (192%) and France (171.6%).

However, it saw sharp reductions in other markets, such as Brunei (92%), Algeria (89%), Angola (89%), Turkey (83%) and the US (69.2%).