HANOI: Vietnam has set an initial target to export 6.5 million tons of rice this year, excluding the grain to be sold to top buyer China via border trade, a state-run newspaper reported on Friday, levels little changed from 2015 shipments.
The target, almost the same as the 6.57 million tons shipped in 2015, was released at a Vietnam Food Association meeting on Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City, to which foreign media were not invited, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper reported. Officials at the rice industry body could not immediately be reached for comment.
A stable volume committed by Vietnam, the world’s third-biggest rice exporter after India and Thailand, would help stabilise supply in a region forecast to face droughts from the El Nino weather pattern this year.
The Southeast Asian nation would deliver 1.2 million tons in the first quarter of 2016, up 33 percent from a year ago, with most of the grain in government contracts signed late 2015, the report said.
Last year, Vietnam sold 1 million tons to Indonesia and 450,000 tons to the Philippines, with deliveries slated to be completed by March 2016. Overall, Vietnam’s exports in 2015 grew 4 percent from the previous year, excluding around 1.5 million tons to China via land borders, according to the association’s data.
India could retain its position as the top rice exporter in 2016, even with sales expected to fall 9.6 percent to 10.6 million tons, followed by Thailand with 10.4 million tons and Vietnam with 8.7 million tons, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said last month. FAO’s forecast for Vietnam includes the volume to be sold to China this year.
