HANOI - China imported some 60 percent of Vietnam's rice in April, making the country the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice in the past two years, said Vietnam Food Association (VFA).China is forecast to continue to be top importer of Vietnam's rice due to increasing demand, Vietnam Industry and Trade Information Center (VITIC) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday quoted VFA as saying.

In April, Vietnam sold some 537,000 tons of rice worth $236.8 million to world market. Vietnam's rice export volume in April went down 7.32 percent over the previous month and failed to meet the set target of 700,000 tons.

As a result, in the first four months of 2014, Vietnam earned $765 million from exporting 1.75 million tons of rice, down 18.49 percent in value and 18.17 percent in volume, said VFA.

The association blamed the decrease in Vietnam's rice exports in April for losing its second large rice market of Africa to Thailand. In addition, Malaysia bought Thai rice for all of its demand in 2014 while Indonesia does not have demand for importing the grain.

The above-mentioned markets were among major importers of Vietnamese rice in 2013.

Local Tuoi Tre (the Youth) online newspaper on Thursday quoted Pham Van Bay, vice chairman of VFA as saying that Thailand was firmly determined to clear its stock,and sold its rice at any price, which makes Vietnam unable to compete.

Vietnam is under the greatest pressure of Thai rice, especially in white rice, assessed VFA, adding that Vietnamese rice exports will depend on China due to loss of other markets.

During the second quarter of 2014, Vietnam's rice export volume is expected to hit 1.8 million tons. Based on development of markets as well as commercial rice output, Vietnam adjusted the rice export volume in 2014 down to 6.2 million tons from the earlier target of 6.7-7 million tons, excluding those via border with China.

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