Expanding the high-end rice market segment

SGGP 05/05/2023 10:14

Rice exports are bright in the first months of 2023. However, increasing rice exports to demanding markets such as the European Union (EU) requires a lot of effort from businesses and farmers.

The Mekong Delta has a big change towards increasing the group of fragrant rice - specialty, high quality.

The world rice market is wide open, creating excitement in the rice granary of the West. In the last winter-spring rice crop, farmers in the West sold rice at 5,500-8,000 VND/kg, a stable price and the highest in the past 10 years. There are still more than 20 days left for farmers in the Mekong Delta to harvest the early summer-autumn rice. However, in some localities, traders have already placed deposits to buy rice. In Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province, trader Nguyen Van Hai said he spent over 100 million VND to deposit to buy 500 hectares of rice (50 hectares), equivalent to 2-3 million VND/hectare; the average rice purchase price for farmers is 6,500 VND/kg.

According to calculations by many farmers in An Giang and Dong Thap, the upcoming summer-autumn rice crop is likely to yield 7 tons/ha; with an average rice price of over VND6,500/kg, farmers can earn a profit of VND25-30 million/ha. However, many rice exporting enterprises are currently having difficulty accessing credit capital, especially when the rice price level is high. "The current rice price reflects the true market price, not an excessively high selling price, because farmers' investment costs have continuously increased in recent years," said Mr. Nguyen Tuan Khoa, Director of Phuoc Thanh II Company Limited (Vinh Long).

According to the Department of Crop Production, currently, the rice variety structure in the Mekong Delta has undergone a major change towards increasing the number of fragrant, specialty, high-quality rice (accounting for over 80%), while the average quality rice group only accounts for about 7%. This helps increase the export price of Vietnamese rice, and farmers' profits also increase.

Mr. Le Huu Toan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang province, said that in 2022, there will be about 12,000 hectares of rice grown in association with enterprises, and in 2023, it is expected to increase to 27,000 hectares with a high-quality orientation for export to the EU. Every year, Kien Giang has about 300,000 hectares of two-crop rice, of which about 100,000 hectares have contracts to link with rice exporting companies, mainly Trung An, Loc Troi and recently Tan Long Group. Currently, Kien Giang rice has been exported to at least 13 markets, including demanding markets such as Japan and the US. Currently, rice exporting corporations and companies are looking for new reputable partners in the markets of European countries, the US and Japan to boost rice exports in the high-quality segment.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of Food Export Business - Loc Troi Group, said that the group is looking for partners in Europe to increase the amount of rice exported, contributing to the sustainable rice production chain.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is completing the final steps to submit to the Prime Minister for approval the project "Sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta region".

According to the draft project, by 2025, the cultivated area of ​​specialized rice growing areas will reach 500,000 hectares; the proportion of areas applying advanced sustainable farming processes that are certified or granted growing area codes will reach 100%; the amount of exported rice with Vietnamese brand will account for 20% of the total rice exported from specialized growing areas.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, by mid-April 2023, the country had exported nearly 2.4 million tons of rice, worth 1.251 billion USD, up 33.70% in quantity and 44.55% in value over the same period in 2022. Notably, in the first months of 2023, the average export price of rice reached 531 USD/ton, up 9.2% over the same period. This is considered the highest level in the past 10 years. Notably, the average export price of rice to China reached 589 USD/ton, up more than 18% over the same period.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/mo-rong-thi-truong-phan-khuc-gao-cao-cap-post688382.html