Rice export surges, farmers earn high profits

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam fetched 785 million USD from exporting 1.74 million tonnes of rice in the first three months of 2009, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Both the export turnover and volume saw high increases, 76.2 percent and 71.3
percent respectively, as compared with the corresponding period last year.

In March alone, the country exported 700,000 tonnes, grossing up to 315 million USD.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, the rice price enjoyed light increases
in March. Rice with 5 percent of broken rice fetches a FOB price of between 435-460
USD per tonne, and rice with 25 percent of broken rice at 400-410 USD per tonne.

However, the association has revealed its plan to slow down rice export as
businesses has so far registered to ship 3.6 million tonnes of rice for the first
six months of 2009. The nation targets to export 4.5-5 million tonnes of rice for
the whole year.

As exporters are accelerating rice purchase for export, farmers in the Mekong
delta rice bowl are selling at prices of 4,200-5,000 VND per kg, pocketing a profit
of 50 percent.

To date, Mekong delta farmers have harvested nearly 800,000 ha out of over 1.54
million ha of the winter-spring rice crop, yielding an average 6.2-6.3 tonnes of
paddy per ha.

The MARD estimates the delta will obtain an output of 9.6-9.8 million tonnes in
this crop.-Enditem