The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has estimated that the country would export a total of 6 million tonnes of rice this year, 750,000 tonnes less than last year.
The association planned to ship the largest volume accounting for 61.29 per cent to Asian countries and 29 per cent of the total to African countries.
It would monitor rice export activities carefully to maintain an export price similar to that of last year, said Truong Thanh Phong, VFA chairman.
Bui Ba Bong, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that this year, besides high-quality rice, exporters would focus on processing medium-quality rice for the African market where there was little demand for the more expensive variety.
Meanwhile, VFA members would purchase 1 million tonnes of both the winter-spring and summer-autumn crops in a bid to stabilise the price.
Last year, Vietnam exported 6.75 million tonnes of rice worth US$3.23 billion, a record high export volume, according to the VFA.
In 2010, the average export price of Vietnamese rice increased by $22 per tonne to $511 for five per cent broken rice and $491 for 25 per cent broken rice./.