Vietnam is expected to produce 43 million tons of rice this year, enough to meet both the export demand of more than 8 million tons and domestic consumption.

In the first four months of 2024, Vietnam earned US$2.08 billion from shipping 3.23 million tons of rice abroad, up 36.5% in value and 11.7% in volume from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The surge in value was attributed to a 22.2% rise in exported rice price to $644 per tonne since the beginning of this year.

Reports at a recent conference on rice exports in the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho show that due to El Nino and climate change impact, the global rice output in the 2023-2024 crop is forecast to drop to nearly 518 million tons, while the consumption demand is 525 million tons, which means that the world will face a shortage of about 7 million tons of the grain this year.

The total volume of rice for export in the Mekong Delta, the country's biggest production hub of the grain, in 2024 is estimated to reach about 7.6 million tons.