Vietnam exported a total of 5.74 million tonnes of rice worth US$2.85 billion during the opening 11 months of the year, with the price of 5% broken rice in November reaching approximately US$500 per tons, according to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (Agrotrade). 

This data represents a decline of 2.2% in volume and an increase of 10.4% in value compared to the same period from last year.

During the initial ten months of the year, the Philippines ranked first in terms of being the leading country’s rice export market, making up 32.9% of the market share, followed by Indonesia and China, with the average rice export price soaring by 12.7% to US$493.3 per tonnes from the same period last year.

Most notably, the price of Vietnamese 5% broken rice over the course of a month increased slightly from US$495 per tonne to roughly US$498 per tonne, while Thailand’s 5% broken rice price witnessed sharp rises from US$466 per tonne to US$480 per tonne.

Furthermore, the recent enforcement of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has given fresh impetus to rice export growth due to the EU giving the country a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice with a 0% tax rate annually. This includes 30,000 tonne of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice, along with 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice in line with the three-to-five-year roadmap, according to some experts.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong assessed that the trade deal will serve to help agricultural exports enter a potential market that is home to more than 511 million people and has a GDP per capita of over US$35,000.

It is anticipated that local rice exports, including fragrant rice, to the EU until the end of the year are set to record an increase despite the adverse impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the export volume reaching between 6.5 million and 6.7 million tonnes.