Preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs show that as of November 15, our country has exported more than 8 million tons of rice, earning 5.05 billion USD - a historical record high.

Vietnam's average rice export price in the past 10 months reached 626 USD/ton, up 12% over the same period last year.

The main export markets for the product known as the "pearl of Vietnam" are still the Philippines and Indonesia, accounting for 46% and 13.5% of rice export turnover in the past 10 months, respectively.

However, recently, sharing with the press, Mr. Zulkifli Hasan - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs of Indonesia - said that this country may not import rice by 2025.

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Vietnam's rice exports surpassed the 5 billion USD mark for the first time in history. Photo: Tam An

This is considered bad news for Vietnamese rice. Because, in the past 2 years, Indonesia has spent a huge amount of money to buy Vietnamese rice and has become the second largest customer, only after the Philippines.

By the end of October this year, Vietnam’s rice exports to the Indonesian market reached nearly 1.09 million tons, earning more than 655 million USD. This means that if Indonesia stops importing next year, Vietnam’s rice exports could lose nearly 700 million USD from this market.

Indonesia's rice production is expected to fall 2.43% this year to 30.34 million tonnes, due to prolonged dry weather in 2023, which will delay planting and harvesting, according to the country's statistics agency.

As a result, Indonesia's rice imports have skyrocketed in the past two years, reaching more than 3 million tons per year. This year, the Southeast Asian country aims to import up to 3.6 million tons of rice.

Mr. Zulkifli Hasan said that if import is needed next year, it may only be a small amount of rice depending on supply, and a portion of this year's import allocation that cannot be delivered will be transferred to next year.

In addition, Indonesia also plans to expand from 750,000 to 1 million hectares of rice land by 2025 to achieve the food self-sufficiency goal set by President Prabowo Subianto.

Rice exports surpass 5 billion USD, still worried about not having a high-quality Vietnamese rice brand Rice exports officially surpassed 5 billion USD. However, the Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production admitted that he still heard stories of "breaking deals" in trading and worried about not having a high-quality Vietnamese rice brand in the international market.