Vietnam Revises 2008 Rice Export Target

The Vietnamese government has revised up its annual rice export target by around 2 %, aiming to ship up to 4.6 million MT of rice this year in an attempt to arrest falling domestic prices.

The upward revision of the annual target would also mean that Vietnam could ship slightly more than the 4.5 million MT exported last year when it was the world’s third-largest exporter of the grain after Thailand and India.

The Vietnamese government had earlier said in July that it would impose export duties on rice, forcing exporters to pay tax of up to $176 PMT of the exportable grain.