According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the rice export market of Vietnam is facing difficulties, rice is mainly exported under commercial contracts, so the price is not high compared to the price of rice in the domestic market. At present, the quantity of rice in export processing enterprises is high.

In the first four months of this year, Vietnam’s top export markets were down sharply in value, including Ghana down 51%, Hong Kong down 45.4%, United States down 21% and Ivory Coast down 18, 2%.

The average rice export price in the first four months of this year was about $ 445 / ton, down 0.2% over the same period in 2016.

China continues to rank first in the rice import market of Vietnam in the first four months of this year with 47.5% market share. Rice export to this market in the first 4 months of this year reached 815,400 tons and 376.2 million USD, up 16.1% in volume and 16.2% in value over the same period in 2016.

The Philippines is Vietnam’s second largest rice importer in the first four months of this year, with 11.4% market share. Rice exports to this market in the first four months of this year reached 236,600 tonnes and $ 90.1 million, up 24% in volume and up 10.9% in value over the same period in 2016.

However, overall rice export volume in May was estimated at 538,000 tons valued at $ 245 million, bringing the total rice export volume for the first five months of this year to an estimated 2.3 million tons and $ 1 billion, up 1, 6% in volume and 1.2% in value over the same period in 2016.
By the end of April 2017, businesses still have over 1.1 million tons of rice contracts but not delivery, of which nearly 900,000 tons are in the form of Commercial co. The number of export contracts has increased again, mainly due to the fall in export prices and the price competitiveness, which should attract buyers back.

Experts say that although Vietnam does not want to admit, Vietnamese rice can only compete with other sources if prices are lower. This is a difficult fact to avoid when considering the general ground, Vietnamese rice is not brand and quality is low.

This also explains why in the first months of this year, rice prices in the country abnormally high, leading to export prices increase, but businesses do not sign many new contracts and exports slowed down. /.