Rice exports need a long-distance calculation

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Rice exports are benefiting both in volume and price. Photo: NT

National brand and reputation

According to the Vietnam Food Association, as of the end of last week, Vietnam's popular exported rice had the highest prices in the international market. According to Vietnamese rice exporters, the demand for rice imports is still very high despite the fact that rice prices are at a record high since the historic rice price fever in 2008.

In July 2023, Vietnam exported 660,738 tons of rice, with a turnover of 362.66 million USD, up 6.9% in volume and 6.4% in turnover compared to the previous month.

In the first 7 months, the whole country exported nearly 4.9 million tons of rice, with a total turnover of 2.62 billion USD, up 20.1% in volume and 31.4% in turnover over the same period in 2022.

The evolution of the rice market is receiving the attention of the public.

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute for Brand Strategy and Competition, said that in the world, the number of countries that can produce enough rice to meet their own needs and still export is not much. Vietnam we are one of them. These countries are not only responsible for meeting the food security needs of their people, but also play a bigger and more meaningful role and responsibility for the global rice market.

According to Mr. Vo Tri Thanh, it should be recognized that this is no longer just a matter of farmers' good harvest, a profitable business problem of traders, businesses or operators to ensure food security of the management agency.

“The story of rice is bigger than a mere business or even bigger than ensuring a country's food security. In addition to economic benefits, rice exports are also a story of the country's brand and reputation in dealing with the world, especially when Vietnam is one of the countries that play an important role in ensuring efficient operations of the world rice market, contributing to ensuring stable food supply and sustainable development of many countries", emphasized Dr. Vo Tri Thanh.

Regarding the issue of rising rice prices, Mr. Vo Tri Thanh analyzed that there are main reasons such as: geopolitical conflicts, making food supply and input materials (for food production) restricted, interrupted. Extreme weather, with the appearance of El Nino phenomenon, the risk of reducing food production in general and rice in particular is present, so countries are worried about supply to serve domestic demand. In that worry, a small group of countries stopped exporting such as India, UAE, etc, making the supply pressure even greater.

According to Mr. Vo Tri Thanh, for domestic supply, ensuring food security needs to be understood in two senses: ensuring sufficient availability and ensuring access. Ensure there is enough, that is, to ensure the supply for the people, stable reserves. To do this, ensuring this supply needs to be carefully calculated, exceeding the normal threshold, considering the unpredictable context in the coming time. Ensuring access, that is, people must be able to buy, at a stable price, avoiding the price increase according to the general trend of the world, affecting inflation and macroeconomic stability.

Maintain stable domestic market

According to Mr. Vo Tri Thanh, basically, the domestic price at this time of course has increased, but is still stable. However, for businesses, the problem of the current rice market is a matter of time to negotiate, sign contracts, purchase, etc. Because rice prices change day by day and each business wants to benefit the most.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem of ensuring contracts that businesses are facing, according to Mr. Vo Tri Thanh, it is necessary to increase flexibility in signing contracts, avoid disputes, and lose credibility in the market. Farmers, traders and exporters should consider the long-term way, ensure contract performance to keep the market in the future by firmly grasping long-term linkages with partners.

According to expert Vu Vinh Phu, the biggest joy is that although the world rice market fluctuates greatly, the domestic consumer market remains stable. However, the market began to have the phenomenon of buying and collecting rice for speculation, waiting for the price to take advantage. This is an act of taking advantage of the market to raise rice prices unreasonably. When this item is suddenly increased in price, many other items will increase accordingly.

Therefore, expert Vu Vinh Phu said that the Government, ministries, sectors, businesses and people must join hands to control. In that context, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has continuously advised rice exporters to take advantage of rice export opportunities and ensure national food security. Most recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued Directive 07 with long-term solutions, which re-emphasizes this issue. This is a timely measure because if the price of rice increases, there will be many potential risks.

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“The important thing for us now is how not to break, stick to the market, do business properly and responsibly. Simultaneously, we must find the most effective way to improve rice export capacity in the international market. From the completion of the production chain, the application of science and technology to the system of warehouses and export seaports," noted Mr. Vu Vinh Phu.