Chinese rice importers invited to boost buying from Vietnam

The Philippines has taken over China as the largest rice importer of Vietnam, a position held by China in 2018.

Illustrative photo.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has invited 20 Chinese rice importers to Vietnam to explore opportunities to buy more of the grain after China fell behind the Philippines as Vietnam’s No.1 rice importer.

The Chinese firms will join rice trade promotion activities at some milling and processing facilities in southern  provinces such as Long An, An Giang, Dong Thap, among others, VnEconomy reported.

The visit of the delegation, headed by a representative of China’s Food Association, is a great opportunity for Vietnamese rice to increase its presence in China’s market.

Over the past years, the ministry has organized many programs to promote rice trade. Between 2016 and 2018, the ministry invited four delegations of Chinese importers from Anhui, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Zhejiang, among others there is high rice demand, to visit the top productive facilities and export enterprises in Vietnam.

The programs created opportunities for local enterprises to introduce high quality rice. Therefore, Chinese enterprises would raise their awareness and evaluation on Vietnam's rice production and Vietnamese rice brands.

Statistics show that Vietnam’s rice export was estimated to reach 658,000 tons, worth US$218 million in March 2019, resulting in a cumulative volume of 1.43 million tons worth US$593 million in the first three months of 2019, down 3.5% in volume and 20.2% in value year-on-year, VnEconomy reported.

In 2018 Vietnam’s rice export reached US$3.03 billion, up 16.1% compared to 2017.

Since the first three months of this year, the Philippines has taken over China as the largest rice importer of Vietnam, a position held by China in 2018, as Vietnamese rice commanded a 40.2% share in the Filipino market.

Vietnamese rice has initially penetrated some demanding markets such as South Korea, Japan, China, the United States and the European Union. Vietnam has remained the world's third-largest exporter of the grain, after India and Thailand.

In 2019, Vietnam's rice export is forecast to reach 6 million tons, equal to the volume in 2018 when the major importers were in Asia.