Surpassing India, Vietnamese white rice is taking the largest market share in Singapore.

Many rice products recorded strong export growth rates.

Statistics from the Trade Office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore show that in the first 6 months of 2024, Vietnam's rice exports to Singapore reached 73.40 million Singapore dollars (SGD) (over 54.6 million USD), an increase of 54.67% over the same period in 2023. Accounting for 32.69% of the market share, Vietnam still holds the position of the largest rice exporter to Singapore in the first 6 months of 2024.

Surpassing India, Vietnamese white rice is taking the largest market share in Singapore.

Some groups continued to witness very strong increases, namely glutinous rice (turnover of SGD 8.9 million, up more than 5 times), broken rice (turnover of SGD 1.5 million, up 187.3%) and milled or dehusked fragrant rice (turnover of SGD 27.27 million, up 161.35%).

Vietnam's main rice group in the Singapore market, white rice, increased slightly by 1.91%, reaching a turnover of 34.5 million SGD. The only group that decreased compared to the same period last year was regular brown rice (turnover of 102,000 SGD, down 51.2%).

Currently, Vietnam is the country with the largest market share in Singapore for three rice groups: white rice (accounting for 48.62%); fragrant rice, milled or peeled (accounting for 69.43%) and sticky rice (78.05%).

After Vietnam, Thailand and India had rice export turnover of 70.73 million SGD and 58.41 million SGD respectively. The total turnover of the top 3 exporting countries accounted for 90.21% of the rice market share in Singapore.

The strong increase in Singapore's rice import demand from 2023 will continue in the first 6 months of 2024, mainly due to India's ban on rice exports and the rapid recovery of tourist arrivals to Singapore, causing the country to increase rice imports.

Statistics from the Singapore Corporate Authority in the first 6 months of 2024 show that the total value of rice imports from the world to the Singapore market increased quite high, at 13.62% over the same period in 2023, reaching nearly 224.5 million SGD.

Previously, according to a report from the Trade Office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, in 2023, Vietnam's rice exports to the Singapore market in 2023 grew very well, reaching a turnover of about 100.3 million SGD, an increase of 30.41% over the same period in 2022.

The decrease in groups such as brown rice, broken rice, and glutinous rice was offset by the increase in the group with the highest turnover, white rice (turnover of 64.5 million SGD, up 4.91%) and the very strong increase in the group of fragrant milled or peeled rice (reaching a turnover of 29.76 million SGD, in previous years this group was not exported from Vietnam to Singapore.

For white rice (Vietnam's rice export strength), India is the country with the largest market share, about 38.98%. In addition, India is also the country that almost completely dominates the market with parboiled rice (accounting for 99.74%) and milled or peeled basmati rice (accounting for 95.96%).

For the remaining rice products, Thailand almost holds the largest market share, specifically: homali brown rice (99.19%), homali white rice (97.43%), glutinous rice (60.48%), broken rice (58.41%). For the regular brown rice group, Japan holds the largest market share (68.34%). Notably, by the end of 2023, Vietnam will still hold the leading position in the market share of milled or dehusked fragrant rice (59.10%).

Promoting Vietnamese rice in the Singapore market

Currently, Thailand, India and Japan are Vietnam’s biggest competitors in the Singapore rice market. Basically, the Singapore rice market has a small but stable demand, from 300 to 400 million SGD per year.

The fact that India (the country that dominates the market share of white rice, a type of rice that Vietnam is strong in) issued a ban on exporting rice other than basmati from July 20, 2023, has been taken advantage of by Vietnamese businesses to increase their market share and export value to Singapore quite well.

However, in addition to businesses having to find ways to improve their competitiveness and the quality of their rice products, the Singapore rice market is closely managed by the Government, as shown by the Government's approval and granting of import licenses as well as direct inspection and testing of rice quality before it is put on the market. Therefore, agreements and commitments at the government level of the two countries have an important meaning and role in exporting rice to Singapore.

Regarding trade promotion of rice products, Mr. Cao Xuan Thang - Commercial Counselor, Head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore - said that the promotion and introduction of Vietnamese rice products in the market is relatively limited, there seems to be no major promotional activities of enterprises, mainly promotional activities of the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore, while countries such as Thailand, Japan, India... are very interested in investing in promoting product images as well as having agreements with importers and distributors on keeping the name and brand of goods.

Vietnamese rice exporting enterprises have weak potential and rarely invest in promoting and introducing products. Therefore, importers and distribution systems in Singapore do not want to use Vietnamese product brands, mainly importing raw rice and then packaging it with Singaporean designs, packaging and domestic brands for easy consumption in the market. Therefore, to increase market share and compete with rice products from India and Thailand, support and contributions from ministries, localities, industry associations and enterprises are needed.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/vuot-an-do-gao-te-trang-viet-nam-dang-chiem-thi-phan-lon-nhat-tai-singapore-335174.html