The figure was released at a seminar on prospects for the Vietnamese rice sector in 2010 held in Can Tho City on November 27.
Export earnings increased from US$322 million in 1989 to US$2.9 billion in 2008. Rice yield rose from 19.2 million tonne in 1990 to 38.7 million tonnes in 2008 and the Mekong Delta region contributed more than half of the export volume.
Since early this year, Vietnam has exported 5.6 million tonnes of rice, netting US$2.266 billion and it will ship 1.12 million tonnes in December.
2009 is a successful year for the Vietnamese rice sector as it sold out the amount of rice production this year plus the remaining stocks of 2008 in spite of the global economic and financial downturn. Rising prices helps to improve farmers’ incomes.
In 2010 and following years, due to climate change, the world’s food production will face difficulties and rice prices will continue to rise. The demand for rice in many countries, especially in Asia and Africa will remain high. The poor countries will have to import large amounts of cheap food and rice of low and medium quality. However, the Vietnamese rice production sector will meet a number of challenges, such as a slow increase in cultivation areas and productivity, weak forecast system, lack of storehouses and credit, poor distribution and competitiveness and high risks in trading.
The State should help farmers to access chains of products’ value from input supply to production, processing, distribution and consumption so that they can improve their incomes. Farmers currently enjoy barely 33 percent of added value from rice.