Ngoc Hung
Farmers dry their rice in the Mekong Delta. The big rice deal with the Philippines will help ease the glut of commercial rice in Vietnam - Photo: Ngoc Hung
VFA Chairman Truong Thanh Phong told the Daily on Wednesday that Vietnam had beaten Thailand in a competitive bidding round organized by the Philippines on Tuesday to win the deal. Cambodia as another competitor dropped its bid in the last minute.
Phong declined to reveal the winning price, but said the price was good.
Under this government-to-government agreement, Vietnam will ship the volume to the Philippines in next year’s first quarter, and given the volume contracted earlier, the shipment to the Philippines will be 700,000 tons, far exceeding the amount shipped to this buyer in this year’s first quarter.
The rice deal was struck after the Philippines’ national food council approved import of half a million tons of rice to secure the country’s food security, especially in the aftermath of the super storm Haiyan this month. Philippine authorities have delivered nearly 300,000 tons of rice to victims of the storm that killed thousands in the country.
In addition, natural calamities have also wrecked havoc the Philippines’ agriculture, with its rice output expected to reduce by two million tons, meaning the country’s food import demand will be high, according to the Vietnamese trade counselor in the ASEAN country.
Customs data show that Vietnam shipped 362,000 tons of rice to the Philippines in the January-October period worth US$160 million. The country has also exported 128,500 tons worth US$75 million to Indonesia and over 400,000 tons worth US$201 million to Malaysia this year to date.
VFA says on its website that Vietnam has shipped 5.93 million tons of rice to foreign buyers with a total value of US$2.55 billion. Phong estimated that the country would export 6.6-6.7 million tons of rice this year, a drop of one million tons year on year.
Last year, Indonesia imported 930,000 tons of rice from Vietnam, while the Philippines bought 1.1 million tons and Malaysia nearly 765,000 tons. These three countries used to be the biggest buyers of Vietnamese rice before being overtaken by China, which imported nearly 2.1 million tons of rice from Vietnam in 2012.
The UN World Food Organization, the Philippines’ rice output this year is estimated at 18 million tons compared to the country’s earlier estimate of 20 million tons. Its import demand, therefore, can rise to 1.2 million tons next year.
Đăng ký: VietNam News