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Rice exports fell sharply in the first month of the year, but domestic rice market was still quite active right after Lunar New Year holiday. Many businesses are stepping up buying to fulfill signed orders.

The domestic rice market remains active despite a decline in exports in the first month of the year. Photo: Trung Chanh

Talking to KTSG Online, Ms. Ngo Ngoc Yen, Director of Hoa Phat Tan Chau Import and Export Co., Ltd., said that although the price of rice has calmed down again, compared to the time before the Lunar New Year, the selling price is still much higher.

Fresh IR 50404 rice harvested by combine harvesters is currently purchased by traders at the field for about 6,600-6,700 VND/kg; OM 380 rice (a type of rice with slightly higher quality than IR 50404- PV rice) costs VND 6,700-6,750/kg; Dai Thom 8 rice costs 7,000-7,050 VND/kg and ST25 rice is about 7,600 VND/kg. Meanwhile, raw rice of IR 50404 variety costs about 10,200 VND/kg; of OM 18 and Dai Thom 8 about 11,000 VND/kg.

Compared to the time before the Lunar New Year, rice in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) is currently priced at about 300-500 VND/kg higher, but about 50-100 VND/kg lower than 2 days ago.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong, a rice farmer in Thanh Loc commune, Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province, said that compared to the time when he received the trader’s deposit, he is currently suffering a loss of 350 VND/kg, which means a loss of 7,000 VND/ bushel of rice.

With 1.5 hectares of OM 380 seed production area, the yield is estimated at about 9 tons/hectare in this winter-spring crop, Mr. Cuong calculates that selling rice at low prices alone has caused him to lose over 4 7 million VND.

The fact that farmers receive deposits first, but the rice is harvested and delivered to traders later, as in the case of Mr. Cuong, is very common in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, many farmers also fell into the same loss situation.

However, farmers who received a deposit to sell rice to traders within a week are very excited because they can sell at a high price. Nguyen Van Hung, a resident of Phu Cuong commune, Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province, said: “In the past two years, this is the first time I have sold rice at such a high price,” he said. However, profit is also forecasted to increase slightly compared to before because input costs are all high

Export decreased, why the market still active?

The report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that, in the first month of 2023, Vietnam’s rice exports are estimated at about 400,000 tons with a value of about 203 million USD, down nearly 21% in volume and about 17.4% in value over the same period last year.

Although rice exports recorded a decline in the first month of the year, the domestic rice market is still quite active.

Talking to KTSG Online, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Khoa, Director of Phuoc Thanh II Co., Ltd., said that because the interest rates of banks were adjusted to increase sharply, at the end of last year, all businesses “reduced” their inventories. warehouse for debt repayment.

On the other hand, after the Lunar New Year holiday, businesses have to focus on returning orders signed with partners from the old year, especially contracts with the Philippines and Indonesia. Rice prices in the domestic market were active at the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, according to Mr. Khoa, the winter-spring rice crop of 2022-2023 has not yet been fully harvested, and the limited supply of goods to the market is also a synergistic factor that causes the price of rice in the domestic market to increase.

The report of the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that, by the end of January 2023, the winter-spring crop 2022-2023, the Mekong Delta region has sown 1.47 million hectares out of a total of 1 million hectares. 51 million hectares planned. In which, the harvested area is about 202,000 hectares, which is only about 14% of the sown area.

If rice prices stay at current levels until the end of the season, farmers in the Mekong Delta will have a successful crop. However, according to insiders’ forecasts, it is likely that rice prices will drop significantly when the 2022-2023 winter-spring crop enters the harvest period.

As for the export aspect, now businesses are also adjusting their selling prices in a downward direction, about 5 USD/ton compared to the price at the beginning of February 2023, down to 468-472 USD/ton for export. for 5% broken rice and 448-452 USD/ton for 25% broken rice.

@Thesaigontimes