As the world's leading rice exporting power, why does Vietnam still spend nearly 1 billion USD importing rice?

According to preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs, in the past 9 months, Vietnam exported more than 7 million tons of rice worth 4.37 billion USD. In terms of turnover, Vietnam's rice exports increased by 23.5%.

On the other hand, our country’s rice import turnover also increased sharply. In September, our country’s rice import turnover skyrocketed by 154.2% compared to the same period last year, reaching 117 million USD.

In the first 9 months, Vietnam spent a total of 996 million USD to import rice products to serve domestic production and consumption needs, up 57.3% over the same period last year. This is a record high for the rice industry so far, and far exceeds the import turnover of 860 million USD for the whole year of 2023.

If the import rate is maintained as in the past two months, our country's rice import turnover in 2024 could reach 1.3 billion USD.

Some people wonder why Vietnam, the world's top rice exporter, has to spend a large amount of money to import this product every year.

On October 3, speaking with Dan Viet, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong - Director of the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that in reality, rice products have many different segments such as: rice for cooking; raw rice for processing into cakes, vermicelli, pho, etc. Therefore, in recent years, in addition to exporting, our country has also imported a large amount of rice to compensate when necessary; or imported rice from major exporting countries such as India to process food, make by-products, and animal feed.

In the first 9 months of 2024, Vietnam spent a total of 996 million USD to import rice to meet domestic demand and production, up 57.3% over the same period last year.

In recent years, farmers have also gradually switched to growing fragrant rice and high-quality rice. The prices of these types of rice on the market are very high. Making vermicelli, pho, and rice paper only requires rice that is chewy, expands, and has a low price. Therefore, with the large gap between domestic and imported rice, it is more profitable for production enterprises to choose imported rice.

Currently, Vietnam imports rice from Myanmar, Pakistan and Cambodia, at a cheaper price than domestic rice. On average, Vietnam's rice export price in the first 9 months of the year was 624 USD per ton, up 13.1% over the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, imported rice to Vietnam costs between 480 and 500 USD per ton.

According to Mr. Cuong, recently over 200,000 hectares of rice in the northern provinces were flooded and damaged by storm No. 3. This is not a "rice granary" for export, but it also greatly affects the supply of this product in the domestic market.

"Rice imports do not affect Vietnam's rice production and export turnover," Mr. Cuong affirmed.

Regarding the world rice market, the most notable news is that India has just decided to lift the ban on exporting non-basmati white rice from September 28. The condition is that the export floor price of this item is 490 USD/ton.

Assessing this impact, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong - Director of the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - said that he will coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to comprehensively assess the impact of India's rice export management policy. The world's rice demand remains high, and India's rice exports are concentrated in a different segment than Vietnamese rice, so the impact is not significant.

The Director of the Department of Crop Production affirmed that the viewpoint of developing the rice industry in the coming years is to produce according to plan, depending on market demand and ensuring the interests of farmers and businesses in a sustainable value chain, not chasing export quantity to gain achievements.

Source: https://danviet.vn/la-cuong-quoc-xuat-khau-gao-hang-dau-the-gioi-vi-sao-viet-nam-van-chi-gan-1-ty-usd-nhap-khau-gao-20241003102337859.htm