HCMC – The first few tons of Vietnam’s fragrant rice has been exported to the United Kingdom since the United Kingdom-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) came into force in late December last year. It was put up for sale in London on January 26.
Britain is imposing a 17.4% tariff on Jasmine rice, but in line with the UKVFTA, fragrant Vietnamese rice enjoys a zero import tax rate, helping raise the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice in the market.
Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in the UK Nguyen Canh Cuong said that the UKVFTA was expected to increase the exports of Vietnamese rice to Britain tenfold in 2021, compared to the figure seen in 2020, VietnamPlus news site reported.
The batch of 60 tons of high-quality rice bought by Longdan Ltd. Co. in the United Kingdom from Vinaseed is being sold at the Longdan supermarkets at a price of 15.5 pounds per 10 kilograms, or VND465,000.
Longdan is the first importer of Vietnamese rice following the application of UKVFTA, Cuong said, adding that some other firms will follow suit in the coming months and the market share of the country’s rice will increase in 2021.
In 2019, Britain purchased over 671,000 tons of rice worth US$531 million, making it the ninth among the 10 countries with the highest imports of rice in the global market. Vietnam exported some 1,720 tons of rice valued at US$1.3 million.
The market share of Vietnamese rice in the United Kingdom accounted for 0.24% of the country’s total rice import turnover in 2019.
