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Rice Sector To Harvest Bumper Crop Profits

A pioneer project in the Mekong Delta province of Long An is set to help remarkably improve Vietnamese rice quality.

Local exporters have a hunger to improve rice quality.

The project, worth VND1 trillion ($62.5 million), is the first of its kind in Vietnam and will be carried out by ITA-Rice, a joint venture between Tan Tao Group, Tan Duc Investment Joint-stock Company and the Tan Dong Phuong Company. It will be implemented on 10,300 hectares in Vinh Hung and Tan Hung districts.

Funding for the project will come from ITA-Rice’s budget and bank loans.
“Currently, the project is still in the planning stages. It will be launched in phases depending on land clearance, which is now underway. It is expected that operations will begin early next year,” Nguyen Van San, head of Tan Tao Group’s Business Division, said.

The project includes 10,000ha for rice cultivation to be grown using the US and Europe’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), that minimises the risk of causing pollution while protecting natural resources. An additional 120ha will be used for rice processing mills under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), a system that ensures that all food consumed is safe to eat. The mills will boast an annual husking and packaging capacity of 50,000 tonnes. A water treatment plant will also be built with a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres per hour and a port for 1,000-tonne ships, as well as a 200ha urban area.

San said the project would greatly improve the quality of rice and raise the country’s prestige globally.

However, he said: "The area for planting high-quality rice is too small compared with the region's 1.5 million hectares of rice, where more than 70 per cent of rice produced is of low quality.”

Though Vietnam is the world’s second largest rice exporter, Vietnamese rice costs $20-$25 less per tonne than Thai rice and $220 less per tonne than US rice. This has been attributed to the fact that Vietnam has yet to apply GAP standards in its rice production.

“In the first year, the construction of necessary facilities such as dikes, roads, drains will be constructed and a pilot export-oriented rice plantation project will be carried out on 100ha,” said Thai Van Men, general director of the Tan Tao Group.
It is expected that the first year of the project’s implementation will see the production of 360 tonnes of category - one rice and 240 tonnes of category - two rice, earning a total turnover of $187,500. At present, 100ha with traditional rice cultivation can churn out 100 tonnes of product.

“Within 10 years, some 489,000 tonnes of high quality rice, including 293,400 tonnes of category one and 195,600 tonnes of category two, will be exported earning a total turnover of more than $356.25 million,” Men said.

ITA-Rice also said it would provide locals with training under international standards and sign contracts to purchase their product.

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