Vietnam exported more than 7 million tons of rice, earning 4.37 billion USD in just 9 months of 2024. But on the contrary, in 9 months, the value of rice imports reached 1 billion USD.
Surely many people are surprised, Vietnam is the world's leading rice exporter, but why spend billions of dollars to import rice. Not to mention that this year, the import turnover of this item could reach 1.3 billion USD.
In the world market, Vietnamese rice is increasingly valuable, surpassing strong competitors such as Thailand and Pakistan. The average price of rice since the beginning of the year is 624 USD/ton, up 13.1% over the same period last year.
The high export price of rice is due to the increase in rice quality, Vietnamese farmers have more and more access to good rice varieties, exploit high-tech production processes, and produce high-quality products.
With the type of rice that brings great value for export, it is a matter of calculating efficiency in business.
Meanwhile, domestic rice is still needed for production. Vietnamese enterprises produce many types of products to meet diverse culinary needs such as vermicelli, pho and many other items. These types of products do not require high-quality rice, so buying imported rice at a lower price is the choice.
Business creates demand. When domestic rice prices are higher, it is natural for businesses to import lower-priced rice as raw materials.
From this perspective, it can be seen that imported rice is considered a raw material for domestic enterprises and production facilities to process food.
If a lot of rice is imported, it shows that food production businesses are doing well. Businesses that do not produce and trade products effectively do not need to import billions of dollars worth of rice in 9 months.
And also from the above analysis, to confirm that it is not because Vietnam lacks rice that it has to import to "cook rice", Vietnam has enough rice for 100 million people, is the number 1 exporter, ensuring food security. Importing rice as raw materials is the activity of enterprises producing goods and products, it is a story of the market.
Another good thing is that Vietnamese farmers produce high quality rice, serving the demand for delicious rice of the majority of people and for export.
Production land is getting smaller and smaller, it is only right to use land to produce high-value rice. Need low-priced rice as raw material, then import. It is that simple, no surprise.
