For the first time in history, Vietnam spent 1 billion USD on rice imports

02/10/2024 15:51

In just 9 months, the value of rice imports has reached 1 billion USD. This is also the first time in history that Vietnam's rice import turnover has reached the billion USD mark.

Vietnam has exported more than 7 million tons of rice, earning 4.37 billion USD in just 9 months of 2024. Compared to the same period last year, rice exports increased by 9.2%, while the value increased sharply by 23.5%.

But in the opposite direction, our country's rice import turnover also increased sharply.

VietNamNet's source said that in September, our country's rice import turnover soared by 154.2% compared to the same month last year, reaching 117 million USD.

Accumulated in 9 months of this year, our country has spent 996 million USD to import rice products to serve domestic production and consumption needs, a sharp increase of 57.3% over the same period last year. This is also a record high number, and at the same time far exceeds the import turnover of 860 million USD for the whole year 2023.

Source: Vietnamnet.vn

If the import rate is the same as in the past two months, in 2024, the import turnover of this item can reach 1.3 billion USD.

Some people wonder why Vietnam is the world's top rice exporter and has to spend a large amount of money to import this commodity every year.

In fact, rice products have many different segments such as: rice for cooking rice; raw rice to be processed into cakes, vermicelli, pho,... Therefore, in recent years, in addition to exports, our country has also imported a large amount of rice to compensate in case of need; or importing rice from a major exporting country such as India for food processing, by-products, and animal feed.

From last year to now, many times Vietnam's rice prices have far exceeded those of competitors such as Thailand and Pakistan.

Statistics show that Vietnam's average rice export price in 9 months of this year is at 624 USD/ton, up 13.1% over the same period last year. Meanwhile, according to records from businesses, the price of imported rice to Vietnam is popular in the range of 480-500 USD/ton.

In recent years, farmers have also gradually switched to planting fragrant rice varieties and high-quality rice. The price of these types of rice on the market is very high. To make vermicelli, pho, and rice paper, you only need chewy, blooming rice and low prices. Therefore, with the large gap between domestic and imported rice, manufacturing enterprises choose imported rice more profitably.

In addition, the domestic supply of rice is not much, some exporters have to increase rice imports from neighboring countries to pay export orders in the last months of the year.

The director of a rice production enterprise in Can Tho said that from now until the end of the year, our country only has the autumn-winter crop, but it is the crop with the least output of the year. That shows that the supply of rice for export is not much.

Not to mention, recently nearly 300,000 hectares of rice in the Northern provinces were flooded and damaged by storm No. 3. This is not a "rice granary" for export, but it also greatly affects the supply of this commodity in the domestic market.

Therefore, if businesses continue to participate in bidding for rice packages offered by Indonesia, they must increase imports from neighboring countries.

Imported rice not only makes up for the gap in the low-end rice segment but also has a low price, ensuring profits for businesses. Therefore, the import of rice does not affect rice production but also helps Vietnam's rice prices and turnover to be more stable, the director said.

Source: Vietnamnet.vn