HANOI, Dec 28, 2006 -- Vietnam plans to export four million tons of rice in 2007, down from estimated 4.7 million tons this year,

Comtex Finance via NewsEdge Corporation :

HANOI, Dec 28, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Vietnam plans to export four million tons of rice in 2007, down from estimated 4.7 million tons this year, local newspaper Vietnam Agriculture reported Thursday.

The Vietnamese Trade Ministry said the main reason for its planned lower export volume is that the ongoing Winter-Spring rice crop in the southern Mekong Delta, the country's rice hub, is estimated to yield only 8 million tons of paddy rice, down from nearly 9 million tons in the previous crop, due to the rampant strike of diseases and pests.

Vietnam is estimated to ship abroad 4.7 million tons of rice worth 1.3 billion U.S. dollars this year. Among nearly 100 rice export markets of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Cuba consume some 60 percent of the total Vietnamese rice export volume, said the ministry.

Vietnam sold overseas more than 5.2 million tons of rice worth of 1.4 billion dollars last year. It has this year grown a total of over 7.3 million hectares of paddy rice with combined output of more than 35.8 million tons.