Vietnam spends US$1.11 billion on importing corn from Argentina

Statistics indicate that during the January to September period, businesses spent US$1.98 billion buying 8.08 million tonnes of corn from overseas, down 2.3% in value but up 24.3% in volume year on year.

The average price of imported corn stood at US$245.4 per tonne, a decline of 21.4% compared to the same period last year.

September alone witnessed the country import 1.15 million tonnes of corn worth US$268.43 million, with an average price of US$232.9 per tonne. These figures all mark decreases of 3.1% in volume, 5.6% in value, and 2.6% in price against August, respectively.

Over the past nine months, Argentina was the largest supplier of corn to the Vietnamese market, selling 4.61 million tonnes valued at US$1.11 billion with a price of US$240.9 per tonne, up 89.4% in volume and 48.3% in value, but down 21.7% in price against the same period last year.

Second position went to Brazil which shipped 2.35 million tonnes of corn to Vietnam in the nine-month period, equal to US$584.73 million, with a price of US$248.7 per tonne.

This was followed by Laos with 74,664 tonnes worth US$18.66 million and Thailand with 3,500 tonnes costing US$6.89 million.

Meanwhile, the amount of corn imported from India decreased sharply by 99.7% in volume and 98% in turnover compared to the same period last year, reaching only 2,574 tonnes of corn worth US$6.8 million.

The majority of imported corn into the Vietnamese market is used every year to produce animal feed. The rest is directly used for food, food processing, and producing bio-energy.