Vietnam could become leading global rice exporter this year

Due to the potential for this sudden increase to lead to a shortage of supplies domestically, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc moved to suspend rice exports until the end of May.

Upon re-evaluating the situation, the Government leader later consented to allow the resumption of rice exports in May while working alongside authorities in 13 localities based in the Mekong Delta.

As a result, the country successfully exported 3.06 million tonnes of rice at a value of US$1.48 billion during the first five months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 11.8% in volume and 25.44% in value, respectively.

"It can therefore be affirmed that we have achieved the goal of sticking to the rice export schedule to ensure absolute national food security in the most complicated period of the the COVID-19 epidemic," the minister stated.