Vietnam’s May rice exports surge to record after ending limits

Vietnam’s rice shipments in May jumped 42% year-on-year to 953,950 tons, the highest level for the month since 2009, when the General Department of Vietnam Customs began releasing data, according to Bloomberg News calculations.

January-May exports increased 12.2% from a year earlier to 3.09 million tons, the customs department said on its website.

That is the highest amount for the January-May period since 2011 when the country shipped nearly 3.4 million tons of rice in the first five months of that year, Bloomberg News calculations show.

The record-high shipments come after the world’s third-largest exporter ended export restrictions from March 24 to the end of April. The Southeast Asian nation saw its price of exported rice reach a multi-year high of $527 tons last month, according to the trade ministry.

Vietnam, whose temporary restrictions on rice exports prompted concerns about food protectionism, expects to surpass Thailand on rice shipments this year with a projected amount of 7 million tons. It shipped 6.4 million tons of the staple last year.