According to the latest data from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 8 months of 2024, rice export reached nearly 3.85 billion USD, up 21.7%; export output reached 6.16 million tonnes, up 5.9%. Average export price of rice in the 8 months reached 542 USD/tonne, up 11.5% over the same period last year.
Opportunity to increase rice exports is huge when Indonesian Food Purchasing Company (Bulog) said that Indonesia wants to import an additional 900,000 tonnes of rice from now until the end of the year in context of forecasted output reduction and delayed rice planting.
Rice suppliers for Indonesian market this year include Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia. In the first half of 2024, Indonesia invited bids for an average of 300,000 tonnes of rice per month. Since July, Bulog has increased the bidding volume by 20,000 tonnes to 320,000 tonnes. However, bidding results were not as expected, Vietnam was only able to buy about 200,000 tonnes. This is a reason why demand for rice in this market is increasing.
In recent July bidding round of Bulog, Vietnamese enterprises won the most bids with 7/12 lots, reaching 185,000 tonnes, winning bid price was 563 USD/tonne. Remaining lots, Indonesia bought rice from Myanmar. Meanwhile, Thai enterprises were not interested in Indonesian market when few enterprises participated in bidding and bidding price was over 20 USD/tonne higher than Vietnam, Pakistani enterprises raised bidding price to 592 USD/tonne.
In 2024, Indonesian government plans to import up to 4.3 million tonnes of rice to ensure national food security. However, after the first 5 months of the year, with favorable imports, each month purchasing about 300,000 tonnes, the country could not open bid in June due to congestion of goods at seaports. In July, although Bulog increased the bidding output, due to paying too low a price, purchase volume was not enough.
In addition to Indonesia, rice demand in many major markets of Vietnam such as the Philippines, China, etc. is also stable.
According to Vietnam Food Association (VFA), export price of 5% broken rice from Vietnam is currently the highest in the world, reaching 578 USD/tonne; while Thai rice ranks 2nd with 566 USD/tonne and Pakistani rice ranks 3rd at 539 USD/tonne.
With such developments, it is forecasted that Vietnam's rice exports in 2024 will continue to flourish and may reach 5 billion USD due to limited supply in the world market, while import demand from many countries tends to increase.
Vietnam's rice exports in 2023 will reach more than 8.13 million tonnes, worth about 4.67 billion USD, the highest level in history of Vietnam's rice industry since it joined export (in 1989).

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn