Vietnam ships nearly 3 mln tons of rice in H1

As of June 13 this year, Vietnam shipped nearly 3 million tons of rice abroad, earning over $1.3 billion, according to the Vietnam Food Association on Thursday.

Specifically, in the first five months, 2.86 million tons of rice worth over $1.26 billion was sold abroad, a year-on-year increase of about 10 percent.

Major import markets of Vietnamese rice included China ( accounting for 38.7 percent of the country's total rice export value), Malaysia (6.1 percent), Singapore (5.6 percent), China's Hong Kong (4.2 percent) and Indonesia (4.1 percent).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, southern Mekong Delta is expected to yield 9.3 million tons of rice in this year's summer-autumn crop.

The country expects to export at least 7.5 million tons of rice in 2013, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.