AsemconnectVietnam - The Vietnam Trade Office in Australia has helped Vietnamese enterprises to sign a contract to export ten containers of ST25 rice to Vanuatu.

Head of the trade office Nguyen Phu Hoa said that the parties have also agreed on the next shipments, with the total demand expected to be up to thousands of tonnes of Vietnamese rice to Vanuatu.
In addition to supporting the successful signing of contracts and completing bank procedures to transfer 30% deposits to Vietnamese businesses, the trade office head and the business visited each major supermarket in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, to give supermarket owners a try, and invite the consumption of Vietnamese rice.
In Australia, with the slogan "Vietnam, land of world's best rice" initiated by the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia, Vietnamese rice has said its quality and gained a foothold in the market for three years.
Mekong Delta to expand shrimp-rice farming
Farmers adopting the shrimp-rice model in the Mekong Delta should seek to adapt to climate change by using advanced techniques and linking up with processing companies to develop value chains, experts have said.
The delta, the country’s largest producer of rice and seafood, has been using the model for decades since it is suitable for application in coastal areas, which are normally affected by saltwater intrusion in the dry season.
Farmers grow rice in the wet season and breed shrimp in the dry season on the same fields.
There were nearly 190,000ha under shrimp-rice farming last year, mostly in Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces, according to the Directorate of Fisheries.
The coastal areas have optimal conditions for the model and farmers earn 60 – 70 million VND (2,600-3,000 USD) per hectare from it annually.
Public private partnership task force on rice established
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced a decision to set up the public-private partnership (PPP) task force on rice and discussed an action plan for 2023 at a recent conference held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Under the decision issued on June 23 last year, the establishment aims to improve the quality and sustainability of the sector by tapping available efforts of diverse actors in the value chain. The task force is expected to attract investment and strengthen the modernisation of the local agriculture and food systems through the application of technology and innovation connectivity.
At the event, Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre (NAEC), stated the task force is committed to transforming the sector’s competition focus from prices to quality, nutrition and sustainability.
Workshop talks cooperation in agriculture adaptive to climate change
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and relevant agencies organised a workshop on agriculture adaptive to climate change in Asian deltas.
The event was intended to promote connectivity and cooperation in materialising initiatives on agriculture adaptive to climate change, especially on the integration of the two initiatives by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) - Excellence in Agronomy and Asian Mega-Deltas – into the implementation of the MARD’s strategy on rice cultivation.
Rice production is facing a host of challenges, especially climate change impacts, and at the same time, it is playing a role in worsening greenhouse gas emissions, heard the workshop.
Vietnam expected to export 7 million tonnes of rice this year: Ministry
Vietnam is expected to ship about 6.5-7 million tonnes of rice abroad this year thanks to the return of markets like Indonesia, Bangladesh, and China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). Vietnam now sees a sharp increase in rice orders from the Philippines and China.
Acccording to Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, the company has signed an order to export 2,000 tonnes of rice to China and is under negotiation for another batch of 20,000 tonnes. Statistics from the General Administration of Vietnam Customs show that in the first two months of this year, China imported 152,640 tonnes of rice from Vietnam worth 90 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 86% in volume and 120% in value.
Vietnamese rice exported to China enjoyed an average price of 589.7 USD per tonne, 18.3% higher than that of the same period last year. Chinese customers mainly imported Vietnam’s high-quality rice like fragrant rice and sticky rice with high prices.
T.Huong
Source: Vitic/VNA