Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Nine Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties will enjoytariff export quotas to Europe under the Europe-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement (EVFTA) agreement.

As part of the agreement, the EU will give Vietnam a quota of 80,000 tonnes ofrice with a zero-per-cent tax rate per year, including 30,000 tonnes of milledrice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.

The EU will also fully liberalise broken rice, helping Vietnam export anestimated 100,000 tonnes to the EU annually.

For products made from rice, the EU will bring the tax rate down to 0 percentafter three to five years.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) would co-ordinatewith localities and exporters to review the list of fragrant ricevarieties and amend and supplement where necessary to meet productionrequirements, said Nguyen Nhu Cuong, director of the ministry’s PlantCultivation Department.

Rice plantations in Mekong Delta provinces account for about 25 percent of thetotal cultivated area, equivalent to about 1 million hectares. Fragrant riceoutput is estimated at 5.5 million tonnes.

The amount of fragrant rice exported to the EU was entitled to a preferentialtariff quota of 30,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1.2 percent of the rice producedin the region, so the export potential for fragrant rice remained veryhigh, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh.

If we complied with EU regulations and exported 30,000 tonnes of fragrantrice and 80,000 tonnes of rice in general with high prices, it wouldhelp improve the efficiency of rice production in Vietnam, added Doanh.

The deputy minister noted that after the Government issued Decree103/2020/ND-CP on the certification of fragrant rice varieties exported to theEU, the ministry quickly issued a decision on certification for rice exportersto this market.

Three units have already submitted their documents to the ministry and theircertification was completed within five days. Enterprises can submitregistration documents through the public administration service portal of theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development, or by post. Enterprisecertification is completely free.

Businesses with fragrant rice listed in the EVFTA agreement with orders toexport fragrant rice needed  to submit their documents to the PlantCultivation Department quickly to complete procedures for exports to theEU, said Doanh./.