US fastest growing market for Vietnamese rice: ministry

American consumers like Vietnamese long-grain fragrant rice varieties such as ST25, adjudged the world’s best in 2019, and for the last two years the U.S. has been importing it, according to that country’s Department of Agriculture.

Vietnamese rice is also gaining popularity in the E.U.

In June, 500 tons of ‘Com Vietnam rice’ was exported to Germany, the Netherlands and France for the first time.

It was sold at Carrefour in France, the biggest hypermarket chain in Europe.

Rice was among nine agricultural items whose exports in the first five months of this year topped US$1 billion, with coffee, rubber and cashew being some of the others.

But Vietnamese rice faces challenges since competitors Thailand and India sell their products at lower prices after their currencies depreciated.

Thailand’s 5 percent broken rice has seen prices fall by 6 percent from a month ago to $420-425 per ton.

Prices in India are now at $355-360 compared to $418-423 in Vietnam.

Vietnam is forecast to export 6-6.2 million tons of the grain this year, same as the last two years, according to the Vietnam Food Association.