Vietnam hopes to export 100,000 tonnes of rice to EU.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a meeting about exporting rice to the EU following the EVFTA on September 8.
Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said the EVFTA is the most anticipated out of 13 free trade agreements that Vietnam has joined.
"The EVFTA will bring many benefits to agricultural products. Rice exports have huge potential under the EVFTA, the EU pledges to provide an annual rice quota of 80,000 tonnes to Vietnam and completely liberalise trade in broken rice. This means Vietnam can export as much as 100,000 tonnes of rice to the EU annually," he said.
According to the Department of Crop Production, the EU will completely waive taxes for rice products from Vietnam after three to five years. This is an advantage over Cambodia and Myanmar that pay a tax of USD150 per tonne in 2020 and USD125 a tonne in 2021.
Nguyen Nhu Cuong, head of the Department of Crop Production, said in 2020, Vietnam expected to export 6.74 million tonnes of rice.
"2.02 million tonnes of fragrant rice will be exported to the EU of which 1.01 million tonnes are Jasmine 85, ST20, RVT, VD20 and Nang Hoa 9 rice," he said.
Nguyen Quang Truong, director of Vinaseed, said, "We made preparations even when the EVFTA was still being negotiated. We have fields that meet VietGAP standards and use the Food Safety Management System 22000."
In 2019, Vinaseed exported over 2,000 tonnes of rice to the EU for USD2m. They hope to export 5,000 tonnes of rice this year, especially when taxes are exempted.
In order to grab the opportunities brought by the EVFTA, Trung An Company signed a contract to export 3,000 tonnes of rice to three firms in Germany for USD1,000 a tonne.
Director of Trung An Company Pham Thai Binh said the first shipment on August 27 transferred 150 tonnes of rice to Germany. They are preparing the second shipment.
Export firms must meet all standards in order to export to the EU including the requirement about pesticide residue. Trung An Company had also prepared raw material areas since 2012 to meet GlobalGAP standards.