From January to July, the country sold 3.86 million tonnes of the grain abroad, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent.

In the first six months of the year, China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese rice with 1.13 million tonnes, followed by African market with 537,000 tonnes, the Philippines with 429,000 tonnes, Indonesia with 776,000 tonnes, and Malaysia with 305,000 tonnes.

Vietnamese exporters have paid due attention to the Chinese market, which accounts for 40 percent of country’s total rice exports. However, China’s import policies and technical barriers pose considerable challenges for Vietnamese firms, said Nguyen Trung Kien, Chairman and General Director of the Gentraco Feed Joint Stock Company.

“China is a choosy market. If Vietnamese products, from pork to vegetables and fruits, do not meet quality requirements, they will be rejected”, he said.

Kien recommended that the Government support exporters in terms of policies and the agricultural sector should give guidance to farmers to produce high-quality products, meeting market’s demand. 

Experts said that demands for rice will grow in the last quarter of the year. Five traditional importers of Cuba, Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia possibly purchase 3-4 million tonnes of rice. However, the Philippines may prefer Thai rice due to its competitive price as the country is importing rice under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh intends to buy 400,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam among 700,000 tonnes it will import in August. 

Vietnamese firms are sending 60,000 tonnes of rice to Cuban market, and 30,000 tonnes to Iraq every month.