Viet Nam has stockpiled adequate food for the needs of daily life and processing of about 100 million population and export, said Nguyen Nhu Cuong, General Director of Crop Production Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. 

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Mr. Cuong made the announcement in response to Viet Nam’s recent order to buy 70,000 tons of rice from India after decades.  

In 2020, despite difficult natural disasters and lower paddy cultivation, output was 42.8 million of tons of paddy including 6.1 million for export worth over US$ 3 billion. The rest served for domestic consumption and processing. 

According to Mr. Cuong, the country is expected to harvest 1.2 million tons of paddy in early winter spring. 

Mr. Nguyen Quang Hoa, Director of Duong Vu Limited liability company (an enterprise which yearly ships 200,000 tons of rice) said that Vietnamese rice importers chiefly bought rice grains for processing of rice noodles, cakes, fodder, and beer in order to get benefits from lower import tariffs (meanwhile import tariff of rice is 40%). 

In addition, Viet Nam has initiated in reducing cultivation area of medium-quality paddy including R40404 and raising the area for high-quality paddy.   

Earlier, Reuters reported Viet Nam began purchasing rice grains from India for the first time in several decades. This is despite the fact that the Southeast Asian country is the third-largest exporter of rice in the world./.