Rice export prices reach 10-year high

Specifically, the price of Viet Nam's 5 percent broken rice increased from US$550-575/ton on July 27, the highest level since 2011, from US$515-525/ton a week ago.

The Viet Nam Food Association admitted that rice prices had recently increased sharply. Importers actively seek out Vietnamese enterprises to buy rice. They pay themselves US$10 - 20 a ton higher than before India banned this item's export.

In Viet Nam's domestic market, the price of rice in the Mekong Delta region increased sharply last week. The highest price of conventional rice in the field last week was VND6,950/kg; the average price was VND6,882/kg, an increase of VND186/kg.

According to the Director of the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) Nguyen Nhu Cuong, businesses should consider the 2008 rice price scenario, and they can re-establish to US$1,000 a ton shortly.

Currently, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia are major importers of Vietnamese rice.

Data from Viet Nam Customs showed that in the first half of the year, rice exports reached more than 4.2 million tons, worth US$2.26 billion, up over 21 percent in volume and 32 percent in value over the same period last year.

The average export price is estimated at US$539 per ton, up more than 10 percent over the same period in 2022 - the highest level in the past ten years.

Rice prices rose sharply in the context that India ordered a halt to the most extensive rice export volume last week to stabilize domestic rice prices, which have been increased to multi-year highs in recent weeks as erratic weather threatens production.

India is the leading rice producer, accounting for 40 percent of world rice exports. The rice export ban pushed India's prices to a five-and-a-half year high, at US$445-450 a tonne from US$421-428 a tonne last week, even as demand fell.