Vietnam becomes Singapore's largest rice exporter

DNHN - In the first three months of this year, Vietnam’s rice exports to Singapore continued to grow strongly, reaching about SGD 36.15 million, an increase of 80.46% over the same period last year.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore (Ministry of Industry and Trade), figures from the Singapore Business Administration Agency show that in the first quarter, the total value of rice imports from the world into Singapore reached nearly SGD 112.9 million, an increase of 23.86% over the same period. The demand for rice imports has increased sharply since 2023 and continued to be maintained in the first three months of 2024 due to India’s ban on rice exports and the rapid recovery of tourist arrivals to Singapore.

In the first three months of this year, Vietnam’s rice exports to Singapore continued to grow strongly, reaching about SGD 36.15 million, an increase of 80.46% over the same period last year. Although some rice groups such as regular brown rice and white rice have decreased, they have been offset by the strong growth of the glutinous rice group, reaching SGD 3.79 million, an increase of 221.76%; and milled or husked fragrant rice reaching SGD 18.06 million, an increase of 291.17%.

India and Thailand hold the next positions with turnover of SGD 33.63 million and SGD 33.16 million, respectively.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore, the first three months of 2024 witnessed significant growth in Vietnamese rice, when for the first time Vietnam became the largest rice exporting country to the Singapore market, accounting for 32.03% of the market share. Vietnam’s rice export turnover is higher than that of India (6.96%) and Thailand (8.28%), and these three countries together account for 91.21% of the rice market share in Singapore.

According to the Trade Office, in addition to white rice, other strong product groups of Vietnam are glutinous rice and milled or husked fragrant rice, which account for the majority of the market share in Singapore, reaching 80.08% and 73.33%, respectively. This has helped Vietnamese rice surpass Thailand and India to become the country with the largest market share in Singapore.

In addition, India still has an absolute market share in the parboiled rice segment (99.29%), and milled or husked basmati rice (95.66%). Meanwhile, Thailand has the largest market share in hom mali brown rice (98.26%), hom mali white rice (96.83%), and broken rice (68.16%). As for Japan, their regular brown rice group has the largest market share (71.72%).

Currently, Thailand, India, and Japan are still the biggest competitors of Vietnamese rice in the Singapore market.

P.V