Pham Thai Binh, director of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture JSC, said in Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon newspaper that his company and other exporters had offered to sell rice to the RoK.

The country has opened tender to import 70,000 tons of Japonica rice, and is planning to announce the bidding results on May 9. The delivery time is June 30 in the RoK. China and Australia have also joined the bid.

Meanwhile, according to NFA (National Food Authorities) of the Philippines, the country is seeking to import another 250,000 tons from large rice exporters under the G2P (government to person) mode. The bid for the supply is scheduled to open on May 22.

Prior to that, the president of the Philippines stated the country urgently needs to import 500,000 tons of rice, including 250,000 tons under the G2G (government to government) and 250,000 tons under the G2P mode.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has not said whether Vietnamese exporters would continue to join the new bid. However, some businesses predicted that it would.

 In late March, Vietnam obtained a contract to export 300,000 tons of rice to Indonesia, raising the total committed amount of rice exports to the market to 441.000 tons.

Thanh Nien newspaper commented that Vietnam’s export markets have expanded, which means less heavy reliance on China as the major export market. 

In the domestic market, rice merchants in Ba Dac wholesale Market in Tien Giang province said the rice price rose after Vietnam won the bid to sell rice to the Philippines on May 4.

 IR50404 material rice is now traded at VND8,500 per kilogram, while fragrant rice is VND11,000-12,000 per kilogram.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), by the end of April, Vietnam had exported 2.2 million tons of rice, worth US$1.1 billion, an increase of 22% in quantity and 38% in value compared with 2017.

The export value increased significantly thanks to higher export prices. In the first quarter, the average export price was US$501 per ton, or 15% higher than the same period last year.

China remained Vietnam’s biggest export market, which consumed 29% of total exports. However, the figure is much lower than the 43.3% in the first four months of 2017.

Nguyen Dinh Bich, a farm produce expert, said he believes rice price fever in the world market may occur sooner than initially predicted.