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Vietnam to supply PH with 1.5-M metric tons of ‘affordable’ rice annually until 2029

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ANOI, February 1 ----- Vietnam has committed to supply the Philippines with at least 1.5 million metric tons of rice at a “competitive and affordable price” in the next 5 years after Hanoi signed a rice cooperation trade agreement with Manila during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s state visit.

 

Under the Rice Trade Cooperation agreement between the two countries, Vietnam agreed to a “five-year trade commitment to supply, through its private sector, white rice to Philippine private sector, amounting to 1.5 million to 2 million metric tons (MT) per year at a competitive and affordable price,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement. “The MOU on Rice Trade Cooperation creates a framework for rice cooperation between the Philippines and Viet Nam to ensure and establish sustainable food supply amidst the impact of climate change, pandemics, and other events external to both countries,” the statement read. The two Southeast Asian countries have also inked deals to “exchange information on policies, plans and regulations, and other rice-trade related activities.”

 

This agreement is expected to “intensify [the] tie up between the Philippines and Viet Nam in the fields of agriculture, rural development, and other related fields, as well as establish 19 areas of cooperation including high value crops, livestocks, and aquaculture, farm management and sustainability, smart agriculture and aquaculture technology, research trainings, and exchanges of experts.”

 

Manila and Hanoi signed a similar agreement in 2008, with Vietnam selling to the Philippines some 1,500,000 metric tons of rice from 2008 to 2010, but the Rice Tariffication Act (RA 110203) of 2019 prohibited the government from importing the staple grain from other governments. Around 90 percent of rice imports in the Philippines are sourced from Vietnam, according to data from the PCO. From January to May 2023, The Philippines imported 1.5 million tons of rice from Vietnam or about 42 percent of the socialist republic’s total rice exports. Aside from the rice deal, the two countries also signed maritime cooperation agreements and a cultural cooperation program between the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam.



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