The EU provides Vietnam with an annual quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice, comprising 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice, and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice, in accordance with the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

As of mid-August, the harvested yield reached roughly 28 million tonnes. Photo: Duc Thanh

The EU will entirely liberalise broken rice, enabling Vietnam to export an estimated 100,000 tonnes of rice to the EU annually. After three to five years, the EU will eliminate taxation on rice goods.

In 2022, rice shipments to the EU will continue to increase. The quota of 80,000 tonnes that qualify for the preferential tax rate of 0 per cent from the EVFTA was not met in 2021 and there has been a rising trend of rice consumption in the EU as a result of the attractiveness of Asian cuisine.

Traditional markets for Vietnamese rice include Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Poland.

The modest downward adjustment of 25 per cent for broken rice is not a cause for concern.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) predicts that Vietnam's rice exports to the EU in 2022 will not be less than 60,000 tonnes, since the quality of Vietnamese rice has improved from the importers' perspective.

According to the VFA, the prospects for rice exports to the EU will increase in the near future if the United States is aggressive in its supply. Despite the pandemic, Vietnam's rice shipments to the EU in 2021 totalled 60,000 tonnes worth $41 million, a rise of roughly 1 per cent in volume but an increase of more than 20 per cent in value compared to the previous year.

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Farming JSC, said, "Europe has become the most important market for this firm, with high-quality rice being the most supplied commodity to this market."

According to Binh, following two years of the EVFTA's implementation, several Trung An exports have been shipped to the EU market with tariff benefits. Specifically, in the first six months of 2022, Trung An's rice export turnover surged by 68 per cent, while overall turnover rose by 19 per cent.

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development up to the middle of August, the whole nation planted 6,7 million hectares of rice, a decrease of 0.7 per cent compared to the same time in 2021, harvested around 4,4 million hectares, an increase of 2.1 per cent, and the average return reached 63.3 quintals per hectare.