Vietnam has agreed with Thailand as well as the Philippines to strengthen rice export cooperation to ensure regional and global food security.
The consensus was reached when Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Thai counterpart Srettha Thavisin and Filipino President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit on Sunday in Tokyo.
The Vietnamese and Thai prime ministers agreed to lift the two-way trade between the two countries to US$25 billion soon, through creating more favorable conditions for importing and exporting goods, including rice.
Thailand is currently Vietnam’s largest trading partner in ASEAN, with import-export turnovers reaching $21.5 billion last year. Meanwhile, it is the 9th largest foreign investor in Vietnam.
Vietnam and Thailand will also implement the “Three Connections” Initiative which focuses on new areas such as digital transformation, green transformation, and the circular economy.
The Vietnamese prime minister and the Filipino President agreed to step up rice export cooperation to ensure regional and global food security when both countries export rice to many nations, and the Philippines imports Vietnamese rice.
Among Vietnamese rice importers, the Philippines currently imports the most. In the first nine months of this year, the Philippines imported 2.4 million tons of rice worth $1.5 billion from Vietnam.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows in the first 11 months, Vietnam earned $4.4 billion from exporting 7.75 million tons of rice to many countries around the world.
The average price of Vietnamese rice was $568 per ton, surging 17% over the same period last year, sometimes reaching nearly $650 per ton.