Hanoi, Oct 7 - Vietnam is expected to double its rice exports in the last three months of this year from a year ago to 1 million tonnes to meet its full-year export target, an industry official said on Tuesday.
Foreign buying demand would remain steady while Vietnam has ample paddy stocks after Mekong Delta farmers have finished their summer-autumn rice harvest, the official at the Ho Chi Minh City-based Vietnam Food Association said.
Rice prices in Thailand and Vietnam have eased from a peak in April because of tight supply, but steady demand for Vietnamese rice and a government buying scheme in both the leading grain export nations could keep prices stable.
"We are looking at markets in West Africa and the Middle East to fulfil the annual target," the association's official said without identifying any countries.
Vietnam exported 500,000 tonnes of rice in the last quarter of 2007 when its total grain shipment reached 4.5 million tonnes, ranking it as the world's third-largest rice exporter after Thailand and India. Hanoi has projected rice exports this year at 4.6 million tonnes.
January to September's rice exports totalled 3.55 million tonnes, while earnings have risen to nearly $2.2 billion, free-on-board basis, said the official who was speaking on condition of anonymity.
The results suggested an average export price of $620 per tonne for Vietnamese rice so far this year, nearly double the average of $320 a tonne in the first nine months of 2007.
Vietnamese exporters have signed contracts of 600,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes out of their 1 million-tonne target for the last quarter, the food association official said.
"Rice exports should not only target volume, but we also want to raise revenues while trying to buy all farmers' paddy," he said.
RISING OUTPUT
The government has revised up this year's paddy output by 2.7 percent after the winter-spring and summer-autumn crops produced a combined 29.6 million tonnes, up 8.8 percent from last year. Earlier, Vietnam had forecast output at 37.6 million tonnes.
Vietnam's annual rice output would rise 7.2 percent to 38.6 million tonnes if its third crop is not affected by bad weather and pests, the government's General Statistics Office said in its monthly report.
"Due to the paddy output rise, even though banks and rice trading firms have implemented government guidance to step up buying rice from farmers, there still remains a large stockpile of commercial rice in the Mekong Delta," the report said.
"The weather may not be favourable for the rest of the year as we expect more rains and storms," the food association official said.
Vietnam's has more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) of coastline and the Southeast Asian country is hit by up to 10 storms or typhoons a year. It has seen eight storms so far this year.
Storms would not affect production in the Mekong Delta rice basket but rains and floods could disrupt rice production in the impoverished central region and could also slow the upcoming harvest of Vietnam's 2008/2009 coffee crop, officials have said.