Vietnam Rice Prices Fall in Mekong Delta

That kind of move is material because rice is not just another crop in the Mekong Delta; it is the income base for hundreds of thousands of smallholders and a key export earner for Vietnam. When prices fall faster than input costs, farm margins collapse quickly, which can curb planting incentives and weigh on rural spending in the region.

The pressure is showing up in individual farm accounts. One An Giang farmer said he sold ST seed rice at 6,200 dong per kg, 1,300 dong below the contract price, wiping out tens of millions of dong in expected profit after three months of cultivation. Another farmer in Dong Thap said a trader who had deposited on rice at 6,800 dong per kg later offered only 6,300 dong, leaving little more than enough to cover fertilizer and pesticide costs.

Costs are rising at the same time. One farmer said production expenses reached about 50 million dong per hectare, up 10% to 15% from previous seasons, after repeated pest outbreaks forced eight pesticide sprays and fertilizer prices climbed 5% to 10%. DAP fertilizer has risen to more than 1.4 million dong a bag, while urea is near 1 million dong.

The weak farmgate market reflects softer demand from key buyers including the Philippines, China and some African countries, according to a local rice exporter. Tighter bank credit is also limiting the ability of traders and millers to finance purchases, which can feed back into lower farmgate bids even when export demand is still present.

Vietnam’s broader export numbers underscore the squeeze. Through August, the country shipped 6.03 million tons of rice worth nearly $2.91 billion, down 5% in volume and 10% in value from a year earlier, with the average export price falling 5.9% to $481.5 a ton. For the full year, rice export revenue is now projected at about $3.94 billion, down 4% from 2025.

For investors, the story points to weaker pricing power across the rice supply chain and thinner margins for millers, exporters and input suppliers tied to farm economics. It also raises the risk that lower prices could eventually slow production decisions in the Mekong Delta, even if near-term supply remains abundant from a strong harvest.

The key question now is whether export demand stabilizes enough to arrest the decline. If not, farmers will keep absorbing the downside while traders, lenders and exporters fight over a smaller margin pool.