China opens doors to Vietnamese rice

A representative of the Tan Vuong Food Company signs a rice export agreement with Chinese partners

Dozens of rice export contracts were signed during a recent visit to the Mekong Delta by a Chinese business delegation and officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade. In the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, Loc Troi Group and Tan Vuong Food Company signed five memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Chinese enterprises to export 84,000 tonnes of rice to China annually.

Tran Quoc Toan, Deputy Director of the Agency of Foreign Trade said apart from efforts to address shortcomings by authorities of the two countries, production, processing, preservation and packaging improvement efforts by domestic businesses are crucial to increase rice exports. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to work with relevant ministries and localities to stimulate trade promotion and seek markets for rice products, Toan said.

Chinese enterprises visit the rice milling plant of the Tan Vuong Food Company (An Giang Province)

Pham Thien Nghia, Vice Chairman of the Dong Thap Province People’s Committee said that in addition to developing trade with Chinese partners, the province is improving the quality of its rice products and providing the best support for enterprises from the two countries to seek cooperation opportunities.

In 2018, China imported rice worth US$1.6 billion, including Vietnamese rice worth US$740 million. In the first four months of 2019, Vietnam exported 2.03 million tonnes of rice worth US$866 million, most of it from Mekong Delta provinces.

Phan Loi, Deputy Director of the An Giang Province Department of Industry and Trade said An Giang exported 475,000 tonnes of rice in 2018, 141,000 tonnes of which to China. The figures were 125,000 and 11,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019.

Nguyen Thanh Muoi, Chairman and General Director of the Tan Dong Tien Joint Stock Company said Tan Dong Tien has invested heavily in rice cultivation and advanced production machinery and equipment to meet the Chinese market’s demand.

Nguyen Tien Dung, Director of Loc Troi Group’s Food Trade Department said Loc Troi packed its high quality rice in small bags for direct sales in supermarkets and sales through e-commerce websites like Alibaba and Kinh Dong.