High rice prices, creating momentum for the rice industry?

In recent days, perhaps the best news for rice farmers in the province is the record high price of rice, exceeding 9,500 VND/kg. On average, rice farmers earn a profit of about 30 million VND/ha after deducting expenses. In all fields, people have been harvesting and drying rice to prepare for the next crop.

Record high rice prices

In the two northern districts of Tuy Phong and Bac Binh, farmers are busy in the fields these days harvesting and drying rice. The harsh sunlight from early morning penetrates the golden rice fields, as if supporting farmers to harvest more smoothly. In Tuy Phong district, farmers have basically finished harvesting the winter-spring rice crop on an area of over 2,000 hectares, with the main varieties being ML48 and Dai Thom 8, with an average yield of 6 tons/hectare. Excitingly, when it is right at the harvest season, the rice buying and selling market is extremely vibrant like never before, with prices around 9,600 VND/kg.

At this time, rice farmers in Bac Binh district have also begun to harvest the crop. Meeting Mr. Binh Van Viet - a rice farmer in Phan Thanh commune, it is known that his family produces 1.5 hectares of rice in the New field. Although harvesting is underway, according to Mr. Viet's estimate, this crop yield is about 5 tons/ha, with the current high selling price, it is estimated that after deducting investment costs, the profit will be about 50 million VND.

This farmer added that this year's crop is more favorable than the same period last year, partly because the price of rice is high, while the price of fertilizers and pesticides, although still high, has decreased and stabilized compared to last year, helping farmers reduce input costs. However, rice growers in Bac Binh district also expressed concern that in the winter-spring crop, some of their own rice fields and other households in particular have been damaged by stem borers and "mixed" rice, affecting the yield and quality of rice. Therefore, farmers hope that the current rice price will remain stable to increase income and reinvest in the next winter-spring crop.

Need for sustainability

According to the assessment of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the weather for crop production in 2023 in the province is quite favorable. The amount of water accumulated in dams ensures production, ensuring that the planting area of crops is relatively in line with the plan. However, at the end of the summer-autumn crop and the beginning of the 2023 winter-spring crop, prolonged heavy rains caused local flooding in some fields, reducing productivity. At the same time, it affected the sowing time of the winter-spring crop, so the end of the sowing time of the winter-spring crop was about 20 days longer than planned. In addition, the situation of pests and diseases on crops continues to develop unfavorably for production, and there are many potential risks of outbreaks such as brown planthoppers on rice. Although production linkage has been implemented with attention, the results are still limited, not really solid, and have not created motivation for developing production in the direction of goods, ensuring quality according to market requirements.

Notably, in the context of fluctuating market prices, the soaring price of rice has made farmers excited, which shows that the Vietnamese rice industry is on the rise. However, at present, on the other hand, rice enterprises are worried because export orders signed in advance at lower prices, but after selling all the inventory, they will have to buy at higher prices to deliver, which can easily lead to losses. Not to mention the domestic rice purchasing chains in general and Binh Thuan in particular (such as Loc Troi Group) have been keeping prices stable for a long time. But the current unexpected increase in rice prices has caused concerns about the impact on the linkage, because farmers see profits from high market prices, while the linked selling price is stable, but lower than the market price. Therefore, ensuring the harmony of interests between farmers and businesses needs to be carefully calculated by all parties, avoiding "breaking the deal" like many agricultural product linkages currently exist.

The provincial agricultural sector said that Binh Thuan is currently continuing to encourage capable enterprises to cooperate in developing concentrated rice seed production areas. At the same time, a plan has been developed to develop concentrated, high-quality commercial rice production areas. Aiming to build a value chain of high-quality rice and specialty rice with the province's brand in key rice production areas in Duc Linh, Tanh Linh, Ham Thuan Bac, and Bac Binh districts.

The ups and downs of the agricultural product market in general and rice in particular continue unceasingly. But in the immediate future, when rice prices have reached a record high in many years, will it be able to create a rebound for the rice industry?

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the area of annual crops planted in the 2023 crop season in the whole province is estimated at about 56,011 hectares, including 44,764 hectares of food crops (40,391 hectares of rice, 4,373 hectares of corn), with an estimated food output of 246,500 tons (220,131 tons of rice, 26,369 tons of corn).

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