World rice market fluctuates in opposite directions, Vietnamese rice price regains "throne"

Promoting the global rice market network The silence of the world rice market

According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), after a series of sharp declines, Vietnam's rice export prices have shown signs of increasing again this week. Although the increase is not high, this is a signal that the rice market has better prospects. Specifically, at the end of the trading session on April 19, the price of Vietnam's standard 5% broken rice increased by 4 USD, reaching 582 USD/ton.

Thailand's rice is also on the rise. Accordingly, the same quality of rice from this country is currently at 579 USD/ton (up 4 USD). In particular, Pakistani rice has decreased by 6 USD, down to 581 USD/ton.

With this adjustment, Vietnam's rice export price has regained its top position, being 3 USD higher than Thailand and 1 USD higher than Pakistan.

The increase in rice prices in Vietnam and Thailand is attributed to supply factors. Accordingly, Vietnam is now at the end of the winter-spring rice harvest, the supply of good rice is still limited, and domestic prices remain high.

Similarly, in Thailand, although still in the peak season, both sellers and buyers have slowed down their transactions and waited for the market to adjust to the new price level.

Thị trường gạo thế giới biến động trái chiều, giá gạo Việt tìm lại ''ngôi vương''

Vietnamese rice exports have many prospects in 2024

In addition to the above factors, according to VFA, the world rice market is also affected by the demand of two major importers, the Philippines and Indonesia. In particular, for the Philippines, in the latest World Trade and Markets report of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Philippines is still the leading importer of staples in the international market and is forecast to import 4.1 million tons in 2024.

Other statistics from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) of the Philippine Department of Agriculture also showed that in the first three months of this year, the volume of rice imported by the Philippines increased by 24.21% to 995,841.6 tons. Notably, up to 57.8% of the Philippines' rice imports came from Vietnam with 576,364.3 tons.

The above information is assessed by Vietnamese rice exporters to have a positive impact on the Vietnamese rice market in the coming time. And in fact, in April 2024, many importers from the Philippines came to Vietnam to buy rice.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of Phuoc Thanh 4 Company Limited, when the price of Vietnamese rice is high, Filipino traders look for Thai rice and other sources with more competitive prices. However, Vietnamese rice has a scent that suits the taste of the Filipino people, along with a very competitive price, so many Filipino traders have come to Vietnam to buy goods. "Filipino traders know that if they do not buy now, a month later there will be no good goods to buy because the quality of the Summer-Autumn rice crop is lower than that of the Winter-Spring crop," said Mr. Thanh.

For Indonesia, VFA informed that the Indonesian National Logistics Agency (Bulog) is likely to continue to open tenders for rice imports in April 2024. The tender for rice purchases is an effort by the Indonesian Government to increase rice imports to lower domestic rice prices after a local crop decline due to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

It is known that in 2024, Bulog was granted an import quota of 2 million tons of rice. However, due to the large harvest in March and April being delayed by 2 months, the Indonesian Government allocated an additional rice import quota of 1.6 million tons for this year, bringing the total import level for the year to 3.6 million tons. From the beginning of 2024 to the end of March 2024, Bulog opened bids 3 times (the first time on January 29, the second time on February 27, and the third time on March 25) with the imported rice volume reaching about 1.1 million tons.

According to the latest data from the General Department of Customs, in March 2024, Vietnam exported 226.16 thousand tons of rice to Indonesia, equivalent to a value of 143.36 million USD, up 17.85% in volume and 15.98% in value compared to the previous month. In the first 3 months of the year, Vietnam exported a total of 445.32 thousand tons of rice to Indonesia, equivalent to a value of 285.05 million USD, up 199.71% in volume and 308.79% in value compared to the same period last year.

According to data from the General Department of Customs, from the beginning of the year to April 15, 2024, the country exported 2.69 million tons of rice, worth over 1.74 billion USD. Compared to the same period, it increased by 13.6% in volume and about 39% in value, respectively.

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