As the world’s leading rice exporter, Vietnam has increased its rice imports from a number of countries in the first nine months of this year. It is estimated that by the end of this year, the import figure will reach a record high: about 1 billion USD.
According to data from the General Department of Customs, in the past 8 months alone, Vietnam spent nearly 850 million USD (an increase of nearly 44% compared to last year) to Rice imports. Many opinions say that this import helps reduce the possibility of increasing domestic rice prices.
Imported rice is cheaper than domestic rice.
Note rice market Imports from food manufacturing enterprises as well as rice import trading enterprises, the majority admit that this market is very vibrant.
"Vietnamese rice As bright as the export rice is, the rice imported from other countries is also bustling and bright. Bright here means that the output is increasing, mainly 5% broken rice and 100% broken rice.
Many businesses are interested in purchasing imported rice for production, making vermicelli, cakes, and animal feed..." - Mr. Nguyen Long (HCMC), an intermediary specializing in trading imported rice from India, said.
Mr. Long said that at many times, the price of Vietnamese exported rice was much higher than that of Thai rice and about 40 USD/ton higher than that of Pakistani rice. Especially for 5% broken rice, the export price sometimes reached nearly 580 USD/ton.
Meanwhile, according to records, the price of imported rice is commonly around 480 - 500 USD/ton when arriving in Vietnam.
"The price gap is large. Businesses need to produce vermicelli, cakes or other by-products, for example, and cannot buy domestic rice," Mr. Long explained.
Recently, farmers have switched to growing more fragrant rice, which is more expensive. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh, owner of a large fresh noodle shop in Quang Ngai City, every day she has to use 500 kg of rice to produce 1 ton of fresh noodles.
According to Ms. Anh, the "normal" rice used to make vermicelli is taken from a large dealer, and is becoming more and more "unusual" because the price has skyrocketed from 12,000 VND/kg to 17,000 VND/kg.
"While the price of 1kg of fresh vermicelli cannot increase by 2,000 - 3,000 VND/kg, increasing the price will lose customers. I have found a source of imported rice, shipped from Ho Chi Minh City. Buying in large quantities, the price of rice is only 10,000 - 12,000 VND/kg. The way to eliminate losses is... to use foreign rice," said Ms. Anh.
The owner of a dried rice vermicelli export production facility (Hoai An district, Binh Dinh province) also said that after 20 years in the business, in the past 5 years, this facility has purchased up to 40% of imported rice.
"In recent years, farmers have switched to growing high-priced rice, while the demand for medium and popular rice has gradually decreased. Making vermicelli, pho, and rice paper only requires rice that is chewy, expands, and has a low price. Therefore, we have to buy imported rice to make it suitable, making products that are more profitable than buying domestic rice," said a representative of the facility.
Helps reduce the possibility of rice price increase
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam's annual rice output is relatively abundant, ensuring food security, national reserves and a certain amount for export (about 6 - 6.5 million tons/year).
A rice factory owner in An Giang province, Mr. PCT, said that since 2019, Vietnam has started and increased rice imports from countries, mainly India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Cambodia. This is not paradoxical but reasonable.
"Vietnamese farmers now mainly grow fragrant rice with high added value. Meanwhile, to make vermicelli, cakes, and animal feed, we need rice with low prices and low segments. It is understandable that Vietnam has to import broken rice from India or other countries," said the owner of this rice factory, adding that importing to compensate for supply not only maintains production capacity but also helps prevent Vietnamese rice prices from increasing too high due to supply and demand factors.
Concerns that businesses import rice to change the name, label it as Vietnamese rice for export to other countries, or mix it with Vietnamese rice for production, according to some experts, this is only in theory because in reality, traders, businesses or experts can distinguish rice grains by looking at them.
Indian and Pakistani rice grains are very small, about 49 - 52mm; Vietnamese rice grains are larger, about 60 - 70mm.
According to a southern leader, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development admitted that Vietnam rice export Top in the world but Vietnam also has to import.
"Every year, our country imports over 1 million tons of rice from Cambodia to compensate when necessary. Or import rice from a major exporting country like India to make by-products, animal feed, and food processing.
However, it must be made clear: although imports from some countries may be cheaper than domestic rice, if these countries ban the export of white rice, such as India, it will not greatly affect rice for Vietnamese consumption. Food security issues are still guaranteed," he said.
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