According to the European Commission (EC), thanks to the effectiveness of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Vietnam has a tariff-free quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice to export to the EU per year.
According to the Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the EU will directly allocate the quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice to their importers while Vietnamese enterprises that are eligible to export rice to the EU need to contact EU rice importers to make full use of the quota.
The amount of Vietnamese rice exported to the EU remains low. Vietnamese rice exports to the EU only reached about 20,000 tonnes in 2019 while the average rice consumption of the EU is 2.5 million tonnes per year.
The reason is that Vietnam was not granted tariff quotas by the EU before, so it was difficult for Vietnamese rice to compete with rice from other countries allocated with tariff quotas or tax exemption.
The EVFTA has helped Vietnam achieve a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice per year with a 0% tax rate.
To meet the EU's requirements for rice exports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is rushing to finalise and submit related administrative procedures for the Government in order to issue a decree on administrative procedures for rice exports to the EU and the enjoyment of tariff-free quotas.
