The growing quality demands of international markets and a surge in market prices are also helping to boost rice exports. According to agricultural experts, rice prices for the 2005-06 years soared by 35 percent over the previous five-year period. Rice exports from Viet Nam have increased by more than 40 USD per tonne due to improvements in rice quality and the price gap between regional neighbours such as Thailand and Vietnam has continued to be narrowed.

However observers have been quick to point out that agricultural and rice-processing sectors must map out long-term measures to continue improving rice quality in order to capitalise on current market momentum.-