Vietnam is the country that exports the most rice and has the highest price in the world. In August 2023 alone, Vietnam exported nearly 1 million tons, bringing in more than half a billion USD in revenue.
From July 20th, 2023, India banned the export of white rice and by the end of August, the country tightened all rice export activities. The two main exporting countries are Vietnam and Thailand with a target of more than 7 million tons and over 8 million tons respectively. Up to this time, Vietnamese rice has been surpassed.
Until early of September this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA) informed that it had just adjusted the prices of exported rice to increase from 10 - 35 USD/ton compared to mid-August, while according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), Vietnam's export price of 5% broken rice increased by 5 USD/ton, to 648 USD/ton, and 25% broken rice increased by 5 USD/ton, reaching 628 USD/ton.
In terms of volume, according to the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand has exported 5.29 million tons of rice from the beginning of the year to the end of August, an increase of 11.9% over the same period in 2022. In Vietnam, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture in August, rice exports were estimated at 950,000 tons, worth 553 million USD. It can be said that Vietnamese businesses have taken good advantage of the opportunity to boost rice exports because compared to the previous month, with only 661,000 tons of rice, worth 363 million USD. Compared to the same period last year, rice export volume and value increased sharply. Specifically, in August 2022, Vietnam exported 718,000 tons of rice, worth 339 million USD.
In addition, in the first 8 months of the year, Vietnam exported 5.85 million tons of rice, worth nearly 3.2 billion USD, rising by 22% in volume and 36.1% in value compared to the same period of 2022.
Based on officially published data, it can be seen that Vietnam currently exports about 560,000 tons more rice than Thailand; the price of Vietnamese 5% broken rice, especially 25% broken rice, is also higher than Thai rice of the same quality.
Regarding the market, the Philippines is still the largest customer of Vietnamese rice, reaching nearly 1.23 billion USD, an increase of 16%, accounting for 38.9% of our country's total export turnover of this product.
But in recent days, information on export rice prices has decreased, so what is the cause?
According to experts and rice businesses, both export and domestic prices have dropped sharply in recent sessions due to the impact of the Philippine market, when this country imposed a ceiling price in the domestic market which is much lower than world rice prices.
Moreover, although India bans the export of ordinary rice and imposes a 20% tax on exported rice..., it still leaves one channel, which is to negotiate with the Government and several large corporations through foreign exchange to buy large orders. This export rice has much better separate prices. Therefore, it is not accurate to say that India exports normal rice, but they still export quite a lot of rice.
In terms of Thailand, they are currently offering rice for export this October and November at very good prices. If Vietnam wants to sell rice to customers, businesses are required to offer reduced or equal prices to foreign markets to compete with other exporting countries. However, when businesses offer like that, they cannot purchase domestic goods.
