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Rice export price lowest in the world
Vietnam’s rice prices are always the lowest compared with products from other countries. Importers do not pay high rates for Vietnamese rice because of its unreliable quality.
Truong Thanh Phong, General Director of the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) and Chair of the Vietnam Food Association, has told the press many times that Vietnam has advantages in white rice, so it should focus on developing this product. Vietnam, he argues, should not try to export scented rice, because it cannot compete with Thailand’s.
The international rice market has grown busier since word spread that the the Philippines must import more than two million tons. Meanwhile, Indonesia may cancel plans to export two million tons of rice if their drought continues.
These are the reasons why many international brokers are ready to pay $320-350 per ton for three percent broken rice (A high-quality Vietnamese rice).
Thailand, with multiple domestic uncertainties, cannot control the international rice market, and yet Vietnam’s rice still cannot be sold at good prices. According to Nguyen Tho Tri, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Food Association, Vietnam’s rice price is rising, but, if not including Myanmar, Vietnam’s rice is exported at the lowest prices on the world market.
Vietnam is considered as having a big influence on the world market, not only because Vietnam is the second biggest rice exporter, but also because Thailand, the biggest exporter, has not sold its big volume of stocks. The Government of Thailand wants to keep Thai rice prices at high levels. It is expected that Thai rice will always cost more than Vietnam’s from now until the end of 2010, with a gap of around $160 per ton.
Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, former Head of An Giang University and a renowned agriculture scientist in Southeast Asia, remarked that Vietnamese rice farmers do not cooperate, and with “every man for himself,” they always grow different varieties.
According to Xuan, rice export companies should cooperate with farmers to generate growing areas big enough to assure the stable quality of rice.
Currently, farmers grow many high quality varieties, but, when collecting rice, small merchants put all the rice together without classification. When exporting rice, buyers set prices in accordance with the broken rice percentage.
Meanwhile, Thailand only grows some varieties of specialty rices for export. Though the varieties of rice provide low yields, they can still obtain high turnovers thanks to the high export price and Thailand’s fame in producing quality rice.
Though the second biggest rice exporter, Vietnam’s image in rice production is not strong enough to bring good export prices. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong admitted that Vietnam is still inferior to Thailand in rice processing.
vietnamnet, VnExpress, Cong Thuong
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