Vietnam to export 6.25 million tonnes of rice this year

Vietnam, the world's second-biggest rice exporter, is forecast to export 6.25 million tonnes of rice this year, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday, an increase of nearly 16 percent from an earlier projection of 5.4 million. Higher domestic output and higher demand are likely to spur the increase in exports, the ministry said in a monthly report released on Wednesday.
"The import demand for Vietnamese rice from countries such as China, Malaysia, Ivory Coast and Senegal rises from 2011," the report said, without giving any breakdown of the demand. It forecast Vietnam's rice export revenues this year could reach $3 billion, down 17.6 percent from $3.64 billion in 2011. Last month, China displaced Indonesia from its March position to become the biggest buyer of Vietnamese rice, having bought nearly 680,000 tonnes in the first four months of 2012, the farm ministry said in a separate report, marking a more than three-fold increase from 153,000 tonnes a year ago. Malaysia took second place, with the four-month delivery volume rising nearly 27 percent from a year ago to 258,000 tonnes, the ministry said.