Vietnamese businesses have so far this year shipped over 4.52 million tonnes of rice abroad for nearly 2.06 billion USD, said the Vietnam Food Association.

The figures, however, reflected a year-on-year decrease of 10.9 percent in volume and 19.44 percent in value.

Despite these decreases, local farmers in these days were happy with a sharp rise in paddy rice price.

In the Mekong Delta, the price of undried IR 50404 paddy enjoyed an increase of 400–500 VND a kilo to 4.800–5.000 VND from a week ago.

In some localities, farmers sold this kind of paddy, the dried, for 5.600–5.700 VND a kilo, the highest price during the summer/autumn crop.

According to the association, paddy-rice prices are expected to continue to rise sharply for the rest of this year.

Local traders analysed that higher demand for paddy from exporters, news about a new contract on the purchase of 500,000 tonnes of rice with Indonesia and the increasing volumes of rice bought by Cambodian traders across the border could also drive rice prices further up.

This year, Vietnam has set to export between 6-6.5 million tonnes of rice./.