Positive signs for Vietnam's rice exports Vietnam’s rice export industry has a bright future with good contracts after having a successful year.   Vietnam had a successful year Vietnam has exported rice to 132 markets in the world and China remains Vietnam's biggest buyers. Vietnam exported over 570,000 tonnes of rice last December, a 38.6% increase compared to the same period in 2016. Local firms signed contracts to export 6.4 million tonnes of rice, of which 5.8 million was exported in 2017. The exports in the first eleven months of 2017 reached 5.52 million tonnes worth USD2.49bn, up 24.1% and 24.9%, respectively, compared to same period the previous year. It also exceeded the 5 million tonnes target set in early 2017. Some 764,000 tonnes of rice remains in the inventory. 209,000 tonnes of which belong to Vietnam Southern Food Corporation, Vietnam Northern Food Corporation has 107,000 tonnes and the rest belong to other companies in the Vietnam Food Association. The Indonesian Bureau of Logistics announced on January 15 that it will start a bidding to import 500,000 tonnes of rice to Indonesia conducted under a government to public deal for both local and foreign firms. The rice must be harvested in less than six months and must be delivered by Feburary28. According to the Jakarta Post, Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita said Indonesia would import rice from Vietnam and Thailand to ease local high prices. According to experts, rice supplies in many countries such as Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea fell because of climate change. Rice exports will continue to grow thanks to the expansion to other markets including Bangladesh and Iraq in 2017. Dang Thi Lien, director of Long An Food Stuff Company, said there were many contracts from China and Philippines and the rice prices also increased to USD20 or USD50 per tonne. Nguyen Thanh Long, director of Gao Viet Company, also think that rice exports will get better in the first quarter of 2018 if they have enough supply. The harvest time in several countries like Pakistan and Myanmar already passed while Thailand may harvest late by a month. However, local firms still need to improve to meet food hygiene and safety requirements and better strategies to compete with India or Pakistan in African markets. dtinews.vn