NEW YORK: Vietnam is aiming to export 7 million to 7.5 million tonnes of rice this year. The major regions where the rice will be exported are China and Southeast Asian countries.
The sales may include 2.4 million tonnes to China, the top buyer of Vietnam’s rice, while 1.5 million to 2.0 million tonnes could go to the Philippines.
Officials at the industry association, which oversees the country’s rice exports, could not be reached for comment.
Vietnam was the world’s third-largest rice exporter after Thailand and India in 2014.
Indonesia could buy between 1.1 million and 1.5 million tonnes from Vietnam in 2015, while sales to Malaysia could total between 500,000 and 1.1 million tonnes, the report said.
It said Vietnam, which faced rising competition from Thailand in 2014, exported 6.5 million tonnes via official channels plus 1 million tonnes to China across the land border, which was not included in the government statistics.
Traders have estimated the rice sold to China through land borders last year at nearly 2 million tonnes.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) forecast that Thailand would regain the rank of largest rice exporter in 2014 with sales of 10.2 million tonnes, followed by India on 10 million tonnes.
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