Lesson 1: The spectacular breakthrough of the 'fruit king', Vietnamese fruits and vegetables rapidly reach a record

Lesson 2: Vietnamese coffee becomes 'ATM' earning billions, most expensive in the world

Lesson 3: Quietly becoming the world's number 1 supplier, the cashew industry 'embraces' a record 4.34 billion USD

Lesson 4: With the world's largest warehouse, Vietnam's 'black gold' is in high demand, in its heyday

Editor's note: 2024 is a 'bumper harvest' year for Vietnam 's agricultural sector. Many traditional industries will regain their position, earning record amounts of foreign currency. Farmers in many places have changed their lives thanks to this. In addition, there are new industries that also have bright prospects for acceleration.

Join VietNamNet in looking back at the bright picture of Vietnam's agricultural sector last year with the belief in a breakthrough year in 2025 through the series of articles 'The Road to Records of Vietnamese Agricultural Products'.

Vietnamese rice has 'changed its fortunes'

By the end of 2024, Vietnam exported more than 9 million tons of rice, with a turnover of nearly 5.7 billion USD. Compared to last year, rice exports increased only 11% in volume but the value increased sharply by 21.2%.

Accordingly, our country's rice industry set a historical record in both output and value; at the same time, it maintained its position as the world's third largest rice exporting power, after India (17 million tons) and Thailand (9.3 million tons).

Vietnam is one of the cradles of wet rice civilization. From the towering mountain peaks of the Northwest to the fertile plains, Vietnamese people can grow rice almost everywhere, producing white, fragrant and nutritious rice grains.

From a hungry country, in 1989, Vietnam exported 1.4 million tons of rice for the first time, earning 322 million USD. In the following year, the rice industry marked a historic milestone when export turnover exceeded 1 billion USD for the first time, with an output of 4.6 million tons. Vietnam officially became one of the world's rice exporting powers.

From 2000 to present, rice export turnover has always been on the rise, successively surpassing the 2 billion USD, 3 billion USD, 4 billion USD marks and reaching 5.7 billion USD in 2024, becoming the 4th highest turnover product in the agricultural sector.

Not only that, after many years of Vietnamese rice being associated with the image of low quality and cheap prices, in the past 2 years the price has gradually improved, continuously rising to the position of the country with the most expensive export price thanks to improved rice quality.

At its peak, during the recent global rice price fever, the average export price of this product from Vietnam soared to 663 USD/ton, 100 USD/ton more expensive than other countries.

In some markets, the average export price of rice in 2024 of our country is sky-high, such as in Brunei it is up to 959 USD/ton, the US is 868 USD/ton, the Netherlands is 857 USD/ton, Ukraine is 847 USD/ton, Iraq is 836 USD/ton, Türkiye is 831 USD/ton... Some companies export rice to Germany at prices up to 1,800 USD/ton, to Japan at 1,200 USD/ton.

Vietnamese rice has had its fortunes "changed" thanks to gradually improved rice varieties, which not only have high yields and short growing times (90-105 days), but also have superior quality compared to competitors.

This is also the reason why many farmers in Cambodia have switched from local rice varieties to famous Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties such as OM 5451, ST and Dai Thom 8 because of higher economic efficiency. Thai farmers are also racing to grow them.

Vietnamese rice is now not only sold to poor countries but is gradually entering high-end markets such as Japan, Korea, the US, Europe... Bags of rice printed with the brand name "Vietnam Rice" confidently appear on the shelves of major supermarket chains around the world.

Vietnamese rice is honored among the best rice in the world, on the menu of politicians, and is the choice of famous chefs. In 2019 and 2023, Vietnam's ST25 rice surpassed competitors from 10 major rice-growing countries to be honored as "The best rice in the world".

Make high quality and multi-value products

In early 2025, in a conversation with the press, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan played the song "Rock Hat Gao" with a new, strong and modern melody:

After growing up, the rice will flower/The rice grain will feed many brothers and sisters to grow up
The body becomes the flower/The Vietnamese embroider the brocade...

“Rock Grain of Rice” is different from “Singing about rice plants today”, different from the familiar image of rice plants and grains that have entered cultural and spiritual life through folk songs, folk songs, and folk songs...

With market fluctuations and changing consumer trends, we also need to have a fresher perspective on rice plants and rice grains. Growing rice is not just about selling rice grains. If we integrate multiple values, from the simplest things, a small grain of rice can also create priceless, infinite, endless "brocade".

The project "Sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030" is not simply about zoning for high-quality products. This is the starting point for a new revolution in production, to demonstrate how Vietnam produces delicious, transparent and responsible rice.

Moreover, there farmers can grow rice to reduce emissions and sell carbon credits.

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Vietnam is the first country in the world to produce high-quality, low-emission rice on a large scale of 1 million hectares. Photo: Hoang Hai

In the second half of 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Carbon Transition Finance Fund held many meetings to agree on how to prepare for the pilot implementation of greenhouse gas emission reduction payments to support the project to develop 1 million hectares of high-quality rice.

After agreement, the Transition Carbon Finance Fund approved a total of $33.3 million, which could increase to $40 million. This amount will be paid to rice farmers who reduce emissions.

Some rice-growing areas that reduce emissions have received support from businesses of 20 USD/ton of carbon. Some households have earned up to several tens of millions of VND thanks to large-scale production.

However, besides the value of carbon credits, the benefits of this project are huge, more useful for Vietnam's agricultural production. Straw can be used as pellets and as a product for the next crop, farmers can save on input costs while the output price increases. Vietnam can confidently bring the brand of delicious, plump "green rice" to the world market.

Rice grains can be processed into many food and cosmetic products to increase their value. Even the vast rice fields and terraced rice fields will help farmers make money by combining tourism to sell landscapes.

As Minister Le Minh Hoan said, we need to be quick to integrate. But to integrate well, we first need to build a solid foundation, filter out unique values, and cherish simple, familiar things. Looking at rice grains differently, people's incomes will also be different.

Next article: Vietnam's strengths overcome difficulties to earn 16.3 billion USD, exploiting a 'gold mine' of 40 million tons

Just after setting a historic 'double' record, Vietnamese rice had an unexpected development . Vietnam's rice exports have just set a historic 'double' record in both quantity and value. However, this strong commodity had an unexpected development in the last days of 2024.