Vietnam exports 3.3 million tonnes so far
KUALA LUMPUR - Vietnam has exported 3.3 million tonnes
of rice in the first nine months this year, a 23 percent increase over
the same period last year.
The annual export target for this year is 3.5 million tonnes, the
offcial Vietnamese news agency reported on Tuesday.
With more than 300,000 tonnes exported to 10 new markets including
Egypt, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. Vietnam now exports rice to
35 countries around the world.
VNA noted that Asia remains the biggest market for Vietnamese
rice, accounting for 47 percent of the country's total rice exports.
Africa follows with 30 per cent, while the Middle East and America
account for 9 and 7 percent respectively.
Two leading world rice expoters, Thai and Vietnamese rice exports
to the Middle East have gained US$4-5 per tonne in price after the
terrorist attacks in the United States last month.
As of early October, prices for Vietnamese rice stood at US$178 a
tonne for 5 percent of broken rice, US$174 for 10 percent, and US$170
for 15 percent.
But rice exporters say they aren't seeing profits from the price
gains because transportation costs to the Middle East and Africa have
also climbed by about $5 a tonne.
Trade officials said Vietnam could export 100,000 tonnes of rice
to Russia this year, accounting for a third of that nation's total
rice imports. Russia imported 70,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam last
year, the highest in the last decade.
The country's rice basket, the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta,
produces about 16 million tonnes of rice a year, including 4 million
for export.
Rice exports have increased steadily over the last 13 years, and
at more than 3 million tonnes a year, Vietnam is now the world's
third largest exporter of the grain after the United States and
Thailand.
IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) - October 23, 2001.
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