Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s rice exports in the first seven months of this year broughthome 2 billion USD, rising 32 percent against the same period last year.

From January to July, the country sold 3.86 million tonnes of the grain abroad,a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent.

In the first six months of the year, China remained the largest importer ofVietnamese rice with 1.13 million tonnes, followed by African market with537,000 tonnes, the Philippines with 429,000 tonnes, Indonesia with 776,000tonnes, and Malaysia with 305,000 tonnes.

Vietnamese exporters have paid due attention to the Chinese market, whichaccounts for 40 percent of country’s total rice exports. However, China’simport policies and technical barriers pose considerable challenges forVietnamese firms, said Nguyen Trung Kien, Chairman and General Director of theGentraco Feed Joint Stock Company.

“China is a choosy market. If Vietnamese products, from pork to vegetables andfruits, do not meet quality requirements, they will be rejected”, he said.

Kien recommended that the Government support exporters in terms of policies andthe agricultural sector should give guidance to farmers to produce high-qualityproducts, meeting market’s demand.

Experts said that demands for rice will grow in the last quarter of the year.Five traditional importers of Cuba, Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines andMalaysia possibly purchase 3-4 million tonnes of rice. However, the Philippinesmay prefer Thai rice due to its competitive price as the country is importingrice under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh intends to buy 400,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam among700,000 tonnes it will import in August.

Vietnamese firms are sending 60,000 tonnes of rice to Cuban market, and 30,000tonnes to Iraq every month.-VNA