Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Rice producers need to be more creative andincrease quality if they want to see export profits rise next year.

That was the message from Do Ha Nam, deputy chairman of the Vietnam FoodAssociation (VFA) who was speaking to the Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade)newspaper about the rice export this year and targets for 2020.

“More consumers like high-value and reputable rice products in themarket," Nam said.

"Therefore, we need to research and develop new rice varieties and producefragrant rice with high value instead of growing ordinary white rice with lowvalue.”

According to rice enterprises, the thing that determines the success of a riceproduct on the market is good quality and reputation, not just high prices.

The VFA representative said the rice production industry will focus more onmarkets in Africa and the Middle East, as well as meet standards under theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Nam said trade counselors in rice export markets that Vietnam has signed freetrade agreements with should provide information about export procedures andstandards required by importing countries.

He also said that the State should have better policies for rice production andtrading enterprises to access capital for increasing investment andtechnological innovation.

This year, according to forecasts of the association, the rice export valuewill hardly reach the target of 3 billion USD as set out earlier this year.

This is due to a reduction of export price by nearly 13 percent compared to2018 to average 439.3 USD per tonne in 11 months of 2019.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) showedthat in the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam’s rice exports reached 5.91million tonnes, up 4.8 percent in volume but the export value decreased 9.4 percentyear on year to 2.6 billion USD.

However, there were some bright spots in the domestic rice export pictureduring the period, Nam said.

Some markets in Southeast Asia also saw a high growth of 25.5 percent in volumeto 2.63 million tonnes and 12.2 percent in value to 1.09 billion USD year onyear.

The Philippines was the largest export market, with almost two million tonnesheading there in 11 months, accounting for 33.6 percent of the total exportvolume and 31.5 percent of the total turnover. The exports increased by 155.4 percentin volume and 133.6 percent in value year on year.

This year, the Philippines has opened a new mechanism so Vietnam’s enterprisesstill had big contracts, making sharp increases in Vietnam’s rice exports tothis market against last year.

According to the MARD, Ivory Coast was the second largest export market for Vietnamwith a rice export volume of nearly 535,000 tonnes, earning 231.45 million USD.

China was the third largest market with a total rice export volume of nearlyhalf a million tonnes imported from Vietnam./.