HANOI: Vietnam’s rice exports in 2016 could fall 13.2 percent from a year earlier to 5.7 million tonnes as supply was dampened by drought and salination, a government news website reported on Friday. Rice exports in January-June by Vietnam, the world’s third-biggest exporter of the grain after India and Thailand, is seen down 8.4 percent annually at 2.73 million tonnes, the website quoted the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) as saying.
The annual estimate is lower than the association’s earlier forecast of 6.5 million tonnes as Vietnam suffers from its worst drought in 90 years that dragged the country’s economic growth last quarter to the lowest in two years.
A farm ministry official urged farmers to boost production to make up for supply losses in the previous crop, while future demand from key markets like China, Philippines and Indonesia is seen solid, the report said. Vietnam exported 2.3 tonnes of rice in the first six months of 2016, almost the same as the corresponding period a year ago, government data showed.
