Vietnam sees sharp increases in export of rice and medical masks

According to the General Department of VietnameseCustoms, Vietnam shipped 321 million medical facemasks abroad in the first five months of this year.

In May alone, after the restrictions on the export of medical masks were removed, more than 180 million medical masks were exported, 1.3 times higher than the total number of those exported in the January-April period (about 139.5 million masks).

Medical masks are a special item that have seen a rise in terms of their export data over the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the export levels of this item was negligible.

Besides medical facemasks, Vietnam also exported nearly 954,000 tonnes of rice worth over US$492 million in May, a dramatic increase of 87% in terms of volume and 93% in terms of value compared to the previous month.

In the five-month period, Vietnam exported a total of 3 million tonnes of rice with a total value of US$1.5 billion.

Vietnamese exported rice was sold at over VND11.8 million per tonne, higher than the average price of VND9-10 million per tonne in the same period last year.

The Phillippines was the largest importer of Vietnamese rice in the five month period with a total volume of over 374,000 tonnes and a total revenue value of over US$183 million, accounting for 39% of Vietnam’s total rice exports.