Urgent actions to promote rice exports

On September 10 in Hanoi, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) organized a conference on promoting rice exports in the last four months of 2025 and the coming years, chaired by Minister Nguyen Hong Dien. The meeting followed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s Directive No.160/CĐ-TTg dated September 9, 2025, on strengthening measures to boost production, exports, and stabilize the rice market.

Participants included Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam, representatives from the Government Office, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Bank of Vietnam, MoIT departments, the Vietnam Food Association, and 20 major rice-exporting enterprises.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien highlighted that rice is a strategic staple for hundreds of countries. For Vietnam, rice has long been tied to food, political, and economic security. Today, with tens of millions of tons exported each year, rice generates billions of dollars, creates jobs for millions of farmers, and contributes directly and sustainably to the national economy.

But recent developments have posed challenges: the Philippines, accounting for 38-40% of Vietnam’s rice exports, suspended imports for two months delaying about 500,000 tons while Indonesia scaled back purchases. This led to declines in both volume and prices.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien stressed that the lesson learned is to diversify markets, avoid dependence on a few partners, and reduce risks by broadening and balancing export destinations.

Tightened oversight and legal framework improvements

According to Nguyen Anh Son, Director General of the Import-Export Department, in the first eight months of 2025, Vietnam exported nearly 6.37 million tons of rice worth over USD 3.26 billion up 3.7% in volume but down 15.4% in value compared with the same period in 2024, which had set record highs.

The Philippines remained the largest importer (2.9 million tons, 45.9%), followed by Côte d’Ivoire (753,700 tons, 11.85%) and Ghana (662,400 tons, 10.4%). China rebounded strongly with 565,300 tons (8.9%, up 141.3%), while Indonesia plunged 97.2% to just 25,400 tons.

The MoIT has been closely monitoring rice trading enterprises under Decree No.107/2018/NĐ-CP and Decree No.01/2025/NĐ-CP. In the first nine months of 2025, the ministry revoked 13 licenses from traders failing to comply such as not maintaining business conditions, ceasing exports for 18 months, or voluntarily requesting revocation.

In trade promotion, the MoIT signed a memorandum with Senegal on July 23, 2025, to supply about 100,000 tons of rice. The ministry also organized trade promotion activities in Guangzhou (June 11-14) and Hong Kong (August 13-16) to sustain Vietnam’s rice export markets.

On the legal side, the MoIT coordinated with other ministries to draft and submit to the Government Decree No.01/2025/NĐ-CP (effective March 1, 2025) amending Decree No.107/2018/NĐ-CP. It also issued Circular No.35/2025/TT-BCT (June 2, 2025), amending Circular No.30/2018/TT-BCT and Circular No.42/2019/TT-BCT on rice export regulations. Currently, the ministry is preparing a comprehensive draft decree to replace Decree No.107/2018/NĐ-CP and Decree No.01/2025/NĐ-CP in line with practical needs and Government directives.

Improving the legal framework, creating a fair competitive environment

From now until the end of the year, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Vietnam’s rice output in 2025 is estimated at 43.143 million tons, down 323,000 tons compared with the same period in 2024. The volume of paddy available for export is projected at about 15.085 million tons, equivalent to 7.542 million tons of rice.

In terms of exports, demand from markets such as China, Bangladesh, and African countries is forecast to be maintained.

India’s resumption of 100% broken rice exports will continue to put pressure on global rice prices, but it will not have much impact on Vietnam since broken rice accounts for only a small share of Vietnam’s exports and targets a different market segment.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien called on rice-exporting enterprises to share the difficulties and obstacles they need support to resolve.

However, rice exports will continue to face challenges due to weather conditions, economic and political risks, and food trade policies that could affect global markets. India’s removal of a series of rice export restrictions since September 2024 has already pushed world rice prices down continuously in recent times.

Meanwhile, exports to the Philippines are facing difficulties after the President of the Philippines issued Executive Order No.93, announcing a temporary suspension of rice imports for 60 days starting September 1, 2025. This factor is affecting market sentiment in the final four months of the year.

To address these issues, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will work to finalize and submit to the Government a new decree to replace Decree No.107/2018/NĐ-CP and Decree No.01/2025/NĐ-CP, thereby improving the legal framework to both create a fair competitive environment for rice exporters and ensure strict management. The ministry will also continue enhancing forecasting and supply demand balancing by strengthening activities such as closely assessing crop production, varieties, and planning paddy and rice volumes for export.

The ministry will direct traders to strictly comply with responsibilities in periodic and ad-hoc reporting, stockpiling, and purchasing. It will also continue inspections on legal compliance and review rice export results to promptly rectify and handle violations of Decree No.107/2018/NĐ-CP and Decree No.01/2025/NĐ-CP.

At the same time, the ministry will intensify efforts to seek, expand, and develop markets through negotiating and signing rice trade agreements with importing countries, and organize trade promotion activities to strengthen the branding of Vietnamese rice under the Vietnam Rice Export Market Development Strategy to 2030.

To effectively implement the results of the Prime Minister’s meetings with foreign leaders, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will follow up with counterparts for responses and confirmation of meeting schedules to negotiate rice export agreements. Alongside, it will enhance market alerts, provide support to traders, remove obstacles in rice export business, improve competitiveness, and build a stronger team of rice traders capable of meeting competition and international integration requirements.