Vietnam revises up rice export target

Vietnamese rice export will see encouraging signs from now till the end of this year and even in the first quarter of next year, the association said on Monday, noting that Bangladesh will have imported some 500,000 tons of Vietnamese rice from May to December, and the Philippines is expected to import more Vietnamese rice in the 2017-2018 period. From early January to mid-November, Vietnam exported roughly 5.3 million tons of rice worth nearly 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, with nearly 40 percent of the volume going to China, 10 percent to the Philippines, and 9 percent to Malaysia, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
Last year, Vietnam shipped abroad nearly 4.9 million tons of rice totaling nearly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, down 26.5 percent in volume and down 22.4 percent in value, said its Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to a national rice export strategy recently approved by the Vietnamese government, among types of rice for export from 2017 to 2020, some 45 percent will be white rice, 30 percent fragrant, special and Japonica rice, 20 percent sticky rice, and 5 percent value-added rice such as nutrient-enriched rice and organic rice, said the ministry.