The volume of rice exported last month is estimated at 700,000 tonnes with a value of 362 million USD.

Bags of rice loaded onto a ship for export. (Photo: VNA)

The volume of rice exported last month is estimated at 700,000 tonnes with a value of 362 million USD.

This brought the total volume of rice exported in the first four months of this year to 1.9 million tonnes, worth 1.01 billion USD, down 10.8 percent in volume but up 1.2 percent in value year-on-year.

The Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that the Philippines was the largest rice consumption market of Vietnam in the first three months of this year with 36.3 percent market share.

The volume and value to the market reached 411,580 tonnes and 219.96 million USD, respectively, down 30.7 percent in volume and 14.5 percent in value year-on-year.

Markets with a sharp increase in rice export value in the three months were Ivory Coast with a 2.7 times rise and Australia with year-on-year growth of 66 percent.

A market where the rice export value fell significantly was Mozambique (down 53.5 percent). The average rice export price in the first three months reached 547.8 USD per tonne, growing 18.6 percent over the same period last year.

Regarding the types of rice, in the first three months of 2021, the export value of white rice accounted for 39.3 percent of the total turnover; jasmine rice and fragrant rice accounted for 36 percent and sticky rice accounted for 22 percent and other types of rice made up about three percent.

On the world market, Vietnam's rice price reached 508 USD per tonne at the beginning of last month and fell to 488 USD per tonne at the end of the month.

The main reason is because the winter-spring crop has been harvested, therefore, the demand for raw materials dropped, waiting for the coming summer-autumn crop.

Poor weather conditions are forecast in many parts of the world this year, resulting in a decrease in food production in many countries, and demand for rice imports expected to increase this year.

The European market is forecasted to be livelier thanks to the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), in which Vietnam is an important rice trading partner./