Vietnam's January to August rice exports surged 43 percent from the same period last year to an estimated 4.7 million tonnes, the government said on Monday. The General Statistics Office estimated the eight-month rice exports would generate $2.15 billion, a drop of 1.4 percent from a year earlier.
Vietnam may have struck an initial pact to sell 400,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines, an industry official said last Thursday, in a move that could stem a fall in Vietnam's rice prices and put it on track to meet a goal of 7 million tonnes of rice exports this year. Vietnam is the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand.