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Hanoi: Vietnam has exported 2.54 million tonnes of rice since the start of this year, up two per cent from the same period last year, leaving less than one million tonnes to be shipped through September under a government curb.
Vietnam has capped rice exports from January to September at 3.5 million tonnes, but officials have said shipment by the year-end could hit 4.5 million tonnes, similar to 2007 when Vietnam was the world's third-largest exporter of rice after Thailand and India.
Rice exports during the first 18 days of July totalled 242,700 tonnes, bringing the cumulative shipment so far this year to 2.54 million tonnes, the Vietnam Food Association said in its weekly report.
It said revenues of the grain exports had reached $1.42 billion, nearly double revenues of $723 million from 2.49 million tonnes shipped in the same period last year. Vietnam has projected rice export earnings of $3 billion for the whole of 2008.
Most of Vietnamese rice exported so far this year has gone to the Philippines, the world's largest importer of the grain.
The Philippines has spent around $1.54 billion this year buying 2.3 million tonnes of rice, mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, to fill a gap in local production and increase its stockpile.
Government deals
Vietnam has won contracts to sell about 1.6 million tonnes of rice to the Philippines via tenders and which are considered government deals.
This has left trading firms little room for their own contracts due to the government's export limit.
Given the 2.54 million-tonne shipment and 10,000 tonnes sold to an European trader for shipment to Iraq, exporters and trading firms share between themselves 950,000 tonnes for deals between now and the end of September.
Part of the remaining 950,000 tonnes is already reserved for the Philippines and also Cuba, which has an annual arrangement with Vietnam to buy 200,000 tonnes each year in various shipments.
Dim prospects of securing a large export deal and a harvest in the Mekong Delta food producing area that is now in full swing have caused domestic prices to ease.
Summer-autumn paddy prices edged down to between 4,700 and 4,800 dong (28.4-29 US cents) per kg yesterday in the Delta, about three per cent down from between 4,800 dong and 5,000 dong a week ago.
However, summer-autumn paddy prices are still nearly 70 per cent higher than the same time last year when they stood at 2,700 dong to 2,900 dong per kg.
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