 |
| Rice sacks loaded onto a ship at the Southern Food Company. Viet Nam has exported 2.65 million tonnes of rice over the past five months, earning $1.19 billion. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam has signed a contract to export 200,000 tonnes of rice to Malaysia, which is expected to support domestic rice prices.
According to the contract, the Viet Nam Food Corporation No 2 will export 200,000 tonnes of 5 per cent broken white rice to Malaysia in July and August this year. The export price is at US$410 per tonne, free on board basis.
The deal is the biggest since Viet Nam signed the Philippines contract to export 800,000 tonnes rice in April this year.
It is expected to support rice export prices ahead of supplies from the winter-spring crop (January to July) harvests in the Red River Delta.
According to the FAO rice price data, average export prices of Vietnamese 25 per cent broken rice increased to roughly $364 per tonne in May, up about 2 per cent from April. But it has declined by roughly 4 per cent from the beginning of this year. Viet Nam's 5 per cent rice prices also increased marginally to about $598 per tonne in May from about $386 per tonne in April, but are down from about $401 per tonne in the beginning of this year.
Malaysia is Viet Nam's traditional rice export destination. The country exported about 465,977 tonnes of rice to the Malaysian market last year, down about 39 per cent from about 764,692 tonnes exported in 2012, according to data from General Statistics Office.
Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that Viet Nam exported 591,000 tonnes of rice, worth $259 million, last month.
The figures brought the country's rice exports during the first five months of the year to 2.65 million tonnes, or $1.19 billion. This figure is down 10.2 per cent in terms of volume and down 7.3 per cent in terms of value from last year.
Average rice export price so far in this year stands at about $433 per tonne (FOB), up about $2 per tonne from about $431 per tonne recorded between January and June, 2013. — VNS