AsemconnectVietnam - In the first 4 months of 2023, Vietnam’s exports of rice to Indonesia increased sharply by 2,514% over the same period last year and Indonesia became Vietnam's third largest rice buyer.

According to the preliminary statistics figures of the General Department of Customs, in the first 4 months of 2023, Vietnam’s rice exports reached nearly 2.9 million tonnes, worth of 1.53 billion USD, up by 40.7% in volume and 51.6 percent in value over the same period last year. In particular, in March and April alone, rice exports earned nearly 1.1 billion USD. The average export price of rice reached 526 USD/tonne, up by 7.6% over the same period last year.
Notably, while rice exports to African markets recorded negative growth, rice exports to Asian markets grew by 3- to 4-digit numbers. Customers in Asia include: Philippines, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. massively buy Vietnamese rice in large quantities.
In particular, the Philippines was still the largest customer of Vietnamese rice exports. By the end of April 2023, the export value of rice to this market reached 647.5 million USD, up by 53.4% over the same period last year and accounted for 42.4% of the total export value.
China became the second largest export market with a turnover of 292.5 million USD, up by 88.2% over the same period last year.
Notably, Indonesia has massively bought Vietnamese rice in recent months. In just 4 months of this year, rice exports to this market earned 149 million USD, a sudden increase of 2,514% compared to the same period last year.
In 2022, rice exports to Indonesia reached only 58 million USD. This is a very modest figure in the country’s total rice export turnover of 3.45 billion USD in 2022. However, with a turnover of 2,514% in the first 4 months of this year, Indonesia for the first time in history rose to become the third largest customer of Vietnamese rice, just behind the Philippines and China.
The information from the Center for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in April of 2023, rice export prices from Vietnam increased to the highest level in two years. Meanwhile, rice prices in Thailand and India both tend to increase until the middle of the month, then turn down towards the end of the month.
Accordingly, in Vietnam, the price of 5% broken rice was offered for sale at 495-500 USD/tonne (the highest level since April of 2021), an increase of 50 USD/tonne from a month ago. In India, 5% broken parboiled rice is currently at 382-388 USD/tonne, down from 385-392 USD/tonne in mid-April 2023. In Thailand, the price of 5% broken rice was at 480 USD/tonne, down by 10 USD from 485-490 USD/tonne in mid-April of 2023, but up by 17 USD/tonne from the March average.
According to rice exporters, the current difficulty is not the export market, but the quality rice growing area to have a large enough supply to export to high-end markets. In particular, rice customers from Europe, America, etc. have great demand. CK
Source: VITIC/congthuong.vn