Not only is the price constantly at the top, Vietnam's research on rice varieties has also forced the "rice powerhouse" Thailand to follow suit. The position of Vietnamese rice in the world market has been increasingly consolidated and enhanced in recent years.
Thai farmers rush to grow Vietnamese rice varieties
Four months ago, Thailand's Bangkok Post published an article reflecting the anxiety and "strong reactions" of many people when Vietnamese rice varieties suddenly appeared in the fields of this country.
Thai people love Vietnamese fragrant rice because it has many outstanding advantages.
CONG HAN
While Vietnam's rice exports depend on a few traditional markets, Thailand, on the other hand, has a diversified output. This helps them maintain stability in their export activities. If you follow Indonesia's bidding sessions, you can see that Thailand would rather not accept a bid than reduce the selling price. Of course, this is an issue that needs to be analyzed more deeply, but it partly shows that they are not dependent on output. For Vietnam, the rice industry reacts very sensitively to market information, so many businesses can easily fall into difficulties if they do not have good suppliers or supply contracts with reputable partners. Expert Phan Mai Huong
However, on August 13, this same newspaper published an article praising the superiority of Vietnamese rice varieties. Mr. Charoen Laothamatas, President of the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA), said: The country's specialty fragrant rice varieties such as Pathum Thani and KB 79 are facing the risk of extinction as farmers gradually eliminate them from the production process. They replace these varieties with Vietnamese rice varieties called Khao Hom Phuang or essentially Jasmine 85. The reason is that the productivity of Thai rice varieties is currently very low, specifically Pathum Thani is from 800 - 900 kg/rai (1,600 m2) while Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties are up to 1,200 - 1,500 kg/rai. A notable point is that the Thai variety has a growing period of up to 4 months (120 days) and can only be grown once a year, while the Vietnamese variety has a shorter harvest period of only 90 - 100 days and can be grown year-round. "Up to 80% of packaged rice sold in Thailand is Khao Hom Phuang rice from Vietnam. Farmers are rushing to grow Vietnamese rice varieties," said Mr. Charoen. The head of the Thai rice industry also recommended that the government should invest in research and development of new varieties, and at the same time legalize Vietnamese varieties for people to use in parallel with local varieties to speed up the development process. Expert Phan Mai Huong, co-founder of the rice market website SS Rice News, said that according to the information she knows, Thailand started growing Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties nearly 2 years ago and currently the area is growing very quickly. That is the actual demand of production, so the government has not officially spoken out. In recent times, Thailand's research and development of varieties has been one beat behind Vietnam's. They have some new varieties but they are still "hard rice", not as soft and spongy as Vietnam's rice varieties, so they have not been accepted by the market. Meanwhile, traders need to serve the market in the best and fastest way, so they want the Thai government to accept and legalize this variety by cooperating and exchanging directly with the Vietnamese government. "In Vietnam today, I see that there are many good quality varieties that can serve the purpose of cooperation and transfer. However, it is difficult to answer the question of the feasibility of this. Basically, Thailand has very strict regulations on hybridization, seed production and even domestically, the private sector is not allowed to research and develop varieties. Therefore, choosing the direction to serve the development needs or protect the integrity of the national rice brand will be discussed a lot," Ms. Huong informed.
Vietnamese rice prices return to the top
In another optimistic development, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said on August 12 that the price of 5% broken rice from Vietnam increased by 8 USD to reach 570 USD/ton. In contrast, the same grade product from Thailand decreased by 4 USD to 561 USD/ton, similarly, Pakistan decreased by 7 USD to 548 USD/ton. Thus, the price of Vietnamese rice has returned to the top of the rankings after about half a year of losing its position to Thailand and at one point Pakistan.
Vietnam's rice exports hit record high but unsustainable because it still depends on a few traditional markets
Record export According to the General Department of Customs, in the first 7 months of 2024, Vietnam's rice exports reached 5.3 million tons and a turnover of 3.3 billion USD; compared to the same period in 2023, an increase of 8.3% in volume and 28% in turnover. These are record numbers in the history of Vietnam's rice exports. The Philippines is still the main consumer market with a market share of 43.6%, equivalent to 2.3 million tons and a turnover of 1.4 billion USD. Indonesia ranked second with a market share of nearly 15%, equivalent to over 778,000 tons and a turnover of 481 million USD. In the Philippine market, Vietnamese rice is facing fierce competition from Thailand. Thailand's The Nation newspaper reported: Taking advantage of the Philippines' demand, Thailand has increased its supply and in the first half of 2024 successfully exported 300,000 tons of rice, an increase of 388% over the same period last year. Thailand also reached an agreement to supply an additional 130,000 tons in the second half of 2024.
Updated as of August 15, the price of 5% broken rice in Vietnam increased by 5 USD to 575 USD/ton while the price of Thai rice remained unchanged at 561 USD/ton, while Pakistani rice decreased by 2 USD to 542 USD/ton. "The price of 5% broken rice in Vietnam has recently increased rapidly and is 15-20 USD/ton higher than that of Thailand, which is in line with the reality of the market," Ms. Huong confirmed. According to many businesses, the rapid increase in the price of Vietnamese rice is due to a number of businesses recently winning large contracts in the Indonesian market. In addition, Philippine traders have also increased imports after a delay waiting for the policy of reducing import tax from 35% to 15%. Both of these markets are Vietnam's largest customers and are expected to increase imports to a record high of 4.3 million tons with Indonesia and 4.6 million tons with the Philippines. In addition, other markets also have a need to increase rice imports to ensure national food security. Even Japan is facing a 14% increase in rice prices due to a shortage of supply due to the heat. Rice prices in Japan have reached an 11-year high. Japan recently announced that it will import 21,000 tons of rice in 2024. Mr. Pham Thai Binh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company (Can Tho), predicted: The rice price trend will continue to be good until the end of this year. By the end of July, Vietnam had exported more than 5 million tons of rice. Compared to the record export figure of 8.1 million tons in 2023, we only have about 3 million tons left for the remaining 5 months of 2024. Currently, we are also at the end of the summer-autumn rice harvest. From now until the end of the year, we have another autumn-winter crop. Both of these crops are not the crops with the largest output of the year. If we look at it from this perspective, we can see that we do not have much rice left to export, so we can rest assured about the price. Also because the quantity is not much left, what many people are still worried about is India lifting the ban on rice exports, if it happens in the coming months, it will have little impact on the Vietnamese market.
Comment (0)