Thailand’s plan to sell off more than 11 million tons of rice reserves will not impact Vietnam’s rice exports, according to several exporters in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

Nguyen Trung Kien, chairman of Gentraco Corporation, one of the city’s leading rice exporters, said sales from Thailand will not be competitive with Vietnamese rice as about 80 percent of Thailand’s proposed sales are for industrial use.

Thailand’s move may affect the volume of Vietnamese rice exports but not export markets as the reserve rice is old and of low quality which can only be used in food processing or sold to some poor countries and humanitarian organisations, said Pham Thai Binh, Director of Trung An Co. Ltd.

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Vietnam has stable export markets which prefer high-quality and newly-harvested rice, Binh said.

The world’s demand for rice is also rising as the output of rice in several countries is likely to decline due to bad harvests, he said.

Binh said that Vietnam’s rice exports this year are likely to reach 7 million tons.

According to Nguyen Minh Toai, head of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, rice exporters need to closely monitor Thailand’s clearance sale.

In order to maintain traditional rice markets, exporters should keep close track of demand and further improve products’ quality, according to several enterprises.

Last year, Vietnam was the third largest rice exporter in the world with an export volume of 6.4 million tons.

Source: VNA