France unexpectedly became Vietnam’s second-largest rice export market in the first month of the year with a volume of 17,919 tons, worth 18.64 million USD.
The export price of Vietnam’s rice had a record increase from 2023 to now, even there was time the highest in the world. Entering 2024, the rice industry continues to receive good news when a country is buying Vietnam’s rice for more than 1,000 USD/ton.
Rice exports to France increased dramatically in January 2024.
Vietnam’s rice exports in the first month of the year reached 512,265 tons, worth 362.3 million USD. The figure was up 4% in volume and 7% in value compared to the last month while increasing 42.8% in volume and 94.5% in value compared to January 2023. The average rice export price reached 707 USD/ton, a slight increase of 3% compared to December 2023.
In January, the Philippines remained Vietnam’s largest rice export market with a volume of 280,944 tons. The average price of rice exported to this market reached 691 USD/ton.
Notably, France unexpectedly surpassed Indonesia and China to become the second-largest customer of Vietnam’s rice. Accordingly, France spent 18.64 million USD to buy 17,919 tons of rice in January 2024 which was 164 times more in volume and 184 times more in value than the last month. In the same period last year, Vietnam did not record rice exports to this market. With the above results, France rose to fourth in volume and second in rice import turnover from Vietnam with a market share of 3.5% and 5.1%, respectively.
Aromatic rice is the most imported from Vietnam by France in January, accounting for 97%, the remaining 2% is white rice and 1% is Japanese rice. In particular, the average export price of rice to the French market is up to 1,040 USD/ton – the highest level among Vietnam’s rice buyers.
2023 is the second consecutive year that rice exports to the EU exceeded the quota.
Mr. Phan Van Co – Marketing Director of Vrice Group Co., Ltd. said that the high rice export to France in the first month of the year shows that Vietnam’s aromatic and high-quality rice are highly appreciated by consumers in France. The price of 1,040 USD/ton has been very high in recent years. “This is a difficult market but willing to pay high prices for quality products,” said Mr. Co.
After the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect in August 2020, Vietnam’s rice exports to the EU in general and the French market in particular have grown quite impressively. In 2023, rice exports to the EU reached nearly 104,000 tons, worth 71.7 million USD, an increase of 10% in both volume and turnover compared to 2022. This is the second consecutive year that rice exports to the EU exceeded the quota that the EU committed to Vietnam under the EVFTA.
Particularly for the French market – this is the second-largest importer of rice in the EU, accounting for 35% of Vietnam’s total rice exports to the EU. In 2023, this country imported a total of nearly 600,000 tons of rice from the world, of which Vietnam was the 10th largest rice supplier, and accounted for 3.2% of the market share.
However, Mr. Co said that Vietnam’s rice exports to Europe are unconsiderable compared to the total production. In addition, the high price of Vietnam’s rice for a long time has caused the loss of many contracts for transactions in March, April, and May 2024.
According to the General Department of Customs, in the first half of February (February 1-15), rice exports reached 150,944 tons with a value of 104.34 million USD. This result increased the total amount of rice exported from the beginning of the year to February 15 to 663,209 tons with a value of 466.6 million USD, up 14.4% in volume and 53% in value over the same period last year./.
