Vietnam’s rice sector orientation: changes to adapt to the global rice market structure

Abstract

Increasing rice production and export has been considered as Vietnamese rice sector’s orientation for many years. However, the analyses of global rice market structure from this research indicate that in the long-term, the rice export supply will be likely to surpass the demand because countries like India, Cambodia and Myanmar with their own export potential are accelerating rice production. Furthermore, rice consumption in Asian countries is expected to peak in 2030, then remain unchanged or decrease slightly. Therefore, Vietnam’s rice sector should transfer its orientation into strongly enhancing the quality of Vietnamese rice and developing the domestic rice market instead of export markets. The domestic market ought to perform an important role in building and testing quality standards, brand name as well as place of origin of the rice grains produced in Vietnam.