On the afternoon of September 10, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a conference to promote rice exports for the last 4 months of 2025 and the coming years chaired by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.
Speaking at the opening of the conference, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized - with an export output of tens of millions of tons, rice has brought in tens of billions of USD per year, contributing greatly to import-export turnover and the national budget, creating jobs and income for millions of farmers.
However, recently, the Philippine market - accounting for about 38-40% of our country's total rice exports, suddenly stopped importing for two months, meaning that about 500,000 tons of rice were " backward", causing great difficulties. In addition, Indonesia has also tightened imports. As a result, our rice exports have both decreased in output and are under downward pressure.
Speaking at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Anh Son - Director of the Import-Export Department informed that preliminary statistics from the Customs authority show that in the first 8 months of 2025, rice exports reached nearly 6.37 million tons with a value of more than 3.26 billion USD, an increase of 3.7% in volume but a decrease of 15.4% in turnover compared to the same period in 2024 - the year of rice exports with the highest achievement ever.
In terms of export market, the Philippines continues to be the largest importing country of Vietnam with nearly 2.9 million tons, accounting for 45.9%, up 4.2% over the same period. Followed by the Ngo Sea Sea market reaching 753.7 thousand tons, accounting for 11.85%, 1.5 times higher than the same period last year. The Ghana market increased by nearly 94.8% over the same period, with exports reaching 662.4 thousand tons, accounting for 10.4%.
Next is the Chinese market, after several consecutive years of decline, in the first 8 months of the year, it grew again, reaching 565.3 thousand tons, accounting for 8.9% of total exports, up 141.3% over the same period.
In contrast, a significant decline from the Indonesian market decreased by nearly 97.2%, reaching only nearly 25.4 thousand tons in the first 8 months after the government of this country announced the suspension of rice imports in 2025. The Malaysian market also decreased by 45% over the same period.
Rice exports to the Philippines, Ivorian, Ghana, China, Bangladesh... all increased compared to the same period last year, offsetting the decline in the markets of Indonesia, Cuba, Malaysia...
From now until the end of the year, in terms of production, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, rice output in 2025 is estimated at 43.143 million tons, down 323 thousand tons compared to the same period in 2024. Commodity rice for export is estimated at about 15.085 million tons, equivalent to 7.542 million tons of rice.
Regarding exports, the demand for rice imports from China, Bangladesh, African countries, etc. is expected to be maintained.
India's resumption of 100% broken rice exports will continue to put pressure on global rice prices, but will not affect Vietnam much because broken rice only accounts for a small proportion of exports and different market segments.
However, rice export activities will also face many difficulties due to weather phenomena, economic - political risks - food import and export policies in the rice commercial market can affect global trade.
Meanwhile, exports to the Philippine market are facing difficulties when the President of the Philippines issued Decree No. 93 announcing a temporary suspension of imports within 60 days from September 1 this year, which is a factor affecting market sentiment in the last 4 months of 2025.
To remove this problem, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will strive to complete and submit to the Government a Decree replacing Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP and Decree No. 01/2025/ND-CP to complete the legal corridor, both creating a fair competitive environment for traders participating in rice export activities and strictly controlling; continuing to improve the effectiveness of forecasting and balancing supply and demand through strengthening activities: Closely assessing the production situation of seasons and types, planning rice and rice goods for export.
Direct traders to strictly implement their responsibilities in the periodic and ad hoc reporting regime, temporary collection and storage; continue to conduct inspection of law enforcement and review the export results of traders' rice to promptly rectify and handle violations of Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP and Decree No. 01/2025/ND-CP.
At the same time, continue to strengthen the search, expansion and development of the market through negotiating and signing rice trade contracts with markets with import needs, organizing and implementing trade promotion activities, and promoting Vietnamese rice product brands according to the Vietnam Rice Export Market Development Strategy to 2030.
