VIETNAM SEEKS WAYS TO ENTER EU RICE MARKET

Vietnam’s rice exports to the European Union (EU) remain modest, at about 20,000 metric tons (MT) in volume and $10.7 million in value in 2019, and accounts for for a small proportion of the bloc’s annual average rice consumption of 2.5 MT from 2016 to 2020 period, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on August 17, 2020.

Among EU member-countries, only Italy and Spain are known to produce modest volumes of rice despite the fact that one percent of all Caucasians suffer from Celiac disease, which prevents them from digesting gluten, a key component of wheat, from which bread is made.

Vietnam is now seeking ways to penetrate the EU market, which is governed by strict phytosanitary rules, and tends to buy organic rice.

In another development, Ecom Net USA, a branch of Vietnam’s personal protective equipment (PPE) provider Ecom Net, signed a contract on August 15 to provide surgical masks and PPEs for the US medical group Spartan’s hospitals across the US.