HANOI, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's rice inventory reached over 955,900 tons as of the end of January 2017, according to Vietnam Food Association (VFA) on Monday.
Among the figure, Vietnam Southern Food Corporation had nearly 318,000 tons of rice, 109,800 tons of Vietnam Northern Food Corporation, and the rest of 528,000 tons belonged to other companies, reported local Bao Dau Tu (Vietnam Investment Review) online newspaper on Monday.
In the first month of 2017, Vietnam exported some 325,000 tons of rice worth 136 million U.S. dollars, down 32 percent in volume and 35.1 percent in value year-on-year.
Average free on board (FOB) price of Vietnamese rice during the month stood at 427.51 U.S. dollars per ton.
Official statistics showed that in 2013, Vietnam sold 6.748 million tons of rice abroad. The figure went down to 6.461 million tons in 2014 and bounced back to 6.615 million tons in 2016. In 2016, the country's rice exports saw sharp decline to hit 4.89 million tons worth over 2.128 billion U.S. dollars, down 25.54 percent in volume and 20.5 percent in value year-on-year.
According to VFA, Vietnam's rice exports will continue to face difficulties this year on decreasing world economy, as well as increasing consumption of wheat and corn.
