Date: July 16, 2003
Source: AFP
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Vietnamese rice exports rose 36.4 percent in the first six months of the year to 2.4 million tonnes, buoyed by a massive increase in demand from African countries, the trade ministry said.
The Southeast Asian nation exported 375,000 tonnes of rice to Africa in the first half, an increase of 145 percent over the same period last year, said an official at the ministry's department of planning and statistics.

Vietnam has set an export target to the continent of 675,000 tonnes this year. Nigeria, Algeria and the Republic of Congo are the three leading importers of Vietnamese rice in Africa.

Southeast Asia accounts for 34 percent of Vietnam's rice exports, with Indonesia and Philippines being the two biggest importers. Africa makes up 21 percent of exports, the Middle East 16 percent and the Americas 10 percent with the rest of the world counting for the remainder.

Vietnam is the world's third largest rice exporters after Thailand and India. Last year it exported 3.2 million tonnes.

Vietnam's rice farming sector has undergone a major transformation in the past decade. A net importer of rice before 1989, it became the world's second biggest exporter 10 years later before losing its placing to India in 2002.

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