Seize the opportunity to raise the position of Vietnamese rice

After the record drought has had a negative impact on the western granary, the positive signal from the global rice market in the post-Covid-19 era is creating a new position for Vietnam in general and the Mekong Delta (Mekong Delta). ) in particular.
With opportunities opening, Vietnam's rice exports are very advantageous to overcome Thailand, taking the top spot in the world this year. But the race from now to the end of the year is still very long, so businesses (DN) need to try and be cautious.

Abundant supply of rice

Contrary to many other key agricultural commodities, the difficulty in output and price decreased due to the impact of Covid-19 epidemic and the situation of drought and salinity intrusion, due to the initiative, rice is a in less impacted crops. Specific evidence is that in the winter-spring and summer-autumn crop, farmers in provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta have won the season with good prices. Having just harvested 1ha of rice, Mr. Phan Thien Khanh in Vi Thanh commune (Vi Thuy, Hau Giang) said: “Before that, even though there was a month of harvesting, traders had come to the field to deposit money. After harvesting, they buy fresh rice in the field at 5,500 VND / kg, up 600 VND / kg over the previous year. Current rice prices have exceeded 100-300 VND / kg compared to the last winter-spring rice crop (depending on the variety). Never has farmers been as excited as the two crops this year. ”

Not only Hau Giang, but many local farmers in the region are also excited by the price of rice at the highest level of the summer-autumn rice crop in recent years. Along with the price increase, the current rice productivity is also higher than the same period from 150-250kg / large range (1,296m2), reaching from 800-900kg / large range.

Harvesting rice in Thanh Loi commune, Thap Muoi district (Dong Thap). Photo: VNA

A summary from the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) shows that, by early June, the whole Mekong Delta region has sown more than 1.2 million hectares of summer-autumn rice (planned 1.53 million hectares). -ta). Currently, farmers have harvested more than 55,000 hectares, the average yield of nearly 6.1 tons / ha. Before that, the winter-spring rice crop in the country harvested about 20.2 million tons, particularly in the Mekong Delta region, the output reached nearly 10.8 million tons. Thus, the total output and export value of rice in the first 5 months reached nearly 2.9 million tons and 1.41 billion USD, up 5.1% in volume and 18.9% in value over the same period. . With the export momentum and the amount of rice, the Mekong Delta provinces recognize that the rice is plentiful and ready to bring rice to market as required by the Government. Traders also pledged to comply with the maintenance of a circulation reserve of at least 5% of the amount of rice that traders exported in the previous 6 months and immediately supply it to the domestic market if required by the Government.

Many new opportunities for Vietnamese rice

Despite the impact from many factors, however, rice exports are still bright spots. Especially, after the order to stop exporting rice was removed, the export rice price also increased to the highest level in many years, averagely reaching 527 USD / ton, up 5.6% compared to April 2020 and increasing. 21.4% compared to the same period in 2019. Mr. Vo Quoc Hung, Deputy Director of Phuoc Dat Co., Ltd. (in Binh Duc commune, Chau Thanh district, Tien Giang province) is an export rice trading enterprise. Up to now, the winter-spring rice crop has been sold, the export rice price has reached the highest level in 10 years. We have exported a large amount of fragrant rice with prices ranging from 480 to 640 USD / ton. "

Mr. Nguyen Minh Toai, Director of Can Tho City Department of Industry and Trade, said: "From the beginning of the year until now, the situation of rice export has many advantages, the selling price is higher than the same period. The average export rice price in the in May, it reached 542 USD / ton, up 36 USD / ton compared to January and 32 USD / ton higher than the same period of 2019 ”.

With competitive prices, especially the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which has just come into effect, has brought many great opportunities for Vietnam's rice exports. Explaining this, Mr. Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Trung An High-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said: "Currently Vietnam's rice exports to the EU market are subject to very high taxes, up to 45. Meanwhile, Cambodian rice is exempted from import tax on the EU so Vietnamese rice cannot compete.Effect of EVFTA may not cause a sudden increase in rice export turnover, but this will be a great opportunity for Vietnam. diversify markets for export rice and give Vietnamese rice more competitive advantage to other countries' rice.

Along with EVFTA, a number of other advantages also come to Vietnamese rice when Vietnam has signed with South Korea two multi-party agreements between Korea and five WTO partners (Australia, the United States, China, Thailand and Vietnam). Vietnam), on the allocation of tariff quotas; bilateral correspondence between Vietnam and Korea on the allocation of tariff quotas. Accordingly, from January 1, 2020, in addition to allocating 20,000 tons of rice to all WTO members, South Korea will give Vietnam its own quota of 55,112 tons of rice. The amount of quotas allocated to Vietnam includes the types of rice that Vietnam can grow and export.

Need thorough preparation for the race

Although holding many advantages, but to achieve the first place in terms of rice export, the competition is not small. Professor Vo Tong Xuan (Rector of Nam Can Tho University) analyzed: "On average, Thailand exports about 10 million tons of rice every year, this year the crop can be reduced to 7-8 million tons, but the output At the same time, Thailand has more customers than Vietnam; the rice production system is also very methodical, while Vietnamese farmers are still strong in planting. ask us to change the way of production Farmers must link together in a cooperative Cooperatives associated with businesses and businesses must also aggressively offer to the market, showing world consumers the rice Good Vietnamese is not inferior to Thai rice ".

Sharing the same view, Labor Hero, engineer Ho Quang Cua (the "father" of ST25 rice variety, the most honored rice product in the world) said that besides focusing on production and construction. To build and promote images, the rice industry needs to develop new types of rice with quality and brands. “After the lesson from the world's best rice fever ST25 shows that consumers are increasingly interested in high-value, reputable products on the market. The effect of ST25 rice has made ST24 rice of many exporters interested in and consumed more strongly, resulting in a very high price, from 22,000 VND / kg to 34,000-35,000 VND / kg. Therefore, we need to research and invest in new varieties, as well as produce aromatic rice products with high profits, instead of growing ordinary white rice of low value, ”engineer Ho Quang Cua said.

Particularly for the EU market, according to experts, the opportunity is there, but the standards are very high. Therefore, in order to maintain its position in the world rice market, a long-term strategy for food security is needed. In particular, more fully aware of the role of the Mekong Delta; it is necessary to have an appropriate investment program for the largest rice region in the country; enlisting international support in the prevention and fight against climate change; innovation of processing technology; enhance competitiveness by organizing rice business along the value chain, and must control the quality standards of rice from production and processing to distribution channels by law and quality management. Given the opportunities and advantages available, if there is careful investment, it is believed that this will be a favorable condition for Vietnamese rice to go further.

Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/kinh-te/cac-van-de/nam-bat-thoi-co-nang-vi-the-gao-viet-624825