The Vietnam Food Association said the firms had won the deal because they offered more competitive prices than their Thai rivals. Price details are not known at this stage. The association said the sum of Vietnam's three successful bids this year was over 1.1 million tonnes.
The Philippines, one of the Asia's largest rice importers, plans to buy 1.6 million tonnes this year. NFA said it might slightly increase rice imports this year to 1.8 million tonnes due to domestic lean production.
The trade ministry has told Vietnam rice exporters to delay signing new export deals in the next few months to capitalise on possible global price hikes later on due to bad weather and pests in some major rice producing nations. The price of 15% broken rice which makes up 80% of total global trade has jumped by 26% so far this year to US$310 per tonne. Rice exporters are also edging closer to the export cap set by the government of 4-4.5 million tonnes. The limit could be raised to 5 million tonnes if harvests are good this year. Ministry data shows exports will touch 2.2 million tonnes by this month-end.
Vietnam earned US$516 million from shipping 1.8 million tonnes of rice in the first five months, a year-on-year plunge of 14% and 4% in terms of both value and volume owning to higher cargo costs. With Thailand, one of the world's leading rice exporters concluding its harvest, Vietnamese rice prices are expected to continue on their upward trend for the near future.