Rice, coffee and key commodity exports: the rice export regime under Decree No. 365/2026/ND-CP, reserves, centralised contracts and the reference price frame, the one million hectare low-emission rice programme and carbon credits, coffee and the EU Deforestation Regulation, pepper, cashew, rubber, tea and cassava, free trade agreement tariff points, trade remedies, export procedures and certificates of origin, with a worked example

The commodity export economy in figures

Vietnam is among the world's largest exporters of rice, Robusta coffee, black pepper and cashew kernels. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) reported agro-forestry-fishery exports of USD 70.09 billion in 2025, up 12%, and USD 56.3 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up 7.8%. Each commodity has its own regulatory profile: rice is the only one with an export licensing regime, coffee and rubber are the Vietnamese products most exposed to the EU Deforestation Regulation, cashew and pepper depend on imported raw material, and cassava is sold almost entirely to China.

In 2025 coffee earned about USD 8.57 billion on about 1.5 million tonnes (MAE), while the Customs Department recorded rice exports of just over 8.06 million tonnes worth about USD 4.1 billion, down 27.6% in value. In the first nine months of 2026 rice reached 6.4 million tonnes and USD 3.11 billion, with the Philippines taking 40.9% by value, China 17.4% and Ghana 12.7%.

The rice export regime under Decree No. 365/2026/ND-CP

Rice is a conditional export. Since 1 October 2026 the regime has been set by Decree No. 365/2026/ND-CP of 23 September 2026 on rice export and import business, which repealed Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP of 15 August 2018, its amending Decree No. 01/2025/ND-CP (in force from 1 March 2025) and Article 27(2) of Decree No. 85/2024/ND-CP under the Law on Prices. The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) administers it through its Import-Export Department, and Circular No. 65/2026/TT-BCT, in force from 1 October 2026, details centralised contracts, reporting, reserves and credit rating.

Under Articles 3 and 4 of the decree, traders of all economic sectors, including foreign-invested enterprises, may export rice if they are lawfully established and hold a certificate of eligibility for rice export business. The conditions are at least one dedicated warehouse for paddy and rice and at least one rice milling facility, each meeting food safety law and the applicable standards and technical regulations. They may be owned or leased, but a lease must be in writing and cover the validity of the certificate, and a holder may not lease its certified facilities to another trader for that trader's application. Only a certificate holder may accept an entrusted export (ủy thác xuất khẩu).

The conditions now operate by self-declaration followed by inspection: MOIT issues the certificate on the trader's declaration, and the provincial authority where the warehouse is located inspects the facilities within 45 days. MOIT reports that a complete file is processed in 10 working days instead of 15. Certificates issued under Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP, which had a five-year term, remain valid until they expire.

Reserves, reporting, revocation and the exempt specialty rices

An ordinary rice exporter must maintain a circulation reserve (dự trữ lưu thông) of paddy and rice at the prescribed level. The repealed Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP required at least 5% of the rice exported in the previous six months; the level now applicable is set by the 2026 decree and circular and should be confirmed from them. Reporting falls to one report a month, due by the 5th, and customs data reach MOIT monthly for cross-checking.

MOIT may revoke the certificate on the trader's request, on dissolution or bankruptcy, on loss of the enterprise or investment registration, where the trader has not been named as exporter on any export declaration for 12 consecutive months without notifying a suspension, where it ceases to meet the conditions, made false declarations about its facilities or obtained the certificate by fraud, fails to follow the authority's directions, fails to report within 45 days after a reminder or fails to maintain the reserve, and on a competent agency's proposal.

Exporters of organic, parboiled and micronutrient-fortified rice need no certificate, warehouse, mill, reserve or periodic report, but must meet the quality, packaging, labelling, storage and traceability rules in Article 17 of the decree, and organic rice must be certified as organic.

Centralised contracts, the reference price frame and rice imports

Government-arranged contracts are allocated through centralised export contracts. Each fourth quarter the MAE, with the provinces, announces the paddy and rice available for export in the following year; designated lead traders, chosen with a rotation mechanism, sign and perform the contracts, exporting 20% directly and allocating 80% to other certified traders by entrusted export, according to MOIT. Allocation criteria include export performance, investment in raw-material zones and credit rating. Under Article 14, exporters will be credit-rated from 1 January 2028 on a 100-point scale in five levels, against ten criteria: credit; tax; customs; production linkage and offtake; rice brand development; export results; reporting and reserve compliance; warehouse and milling compliance; logistics; and occupational safety, fire prevention and disaster readiness.

The Prime Minister, on proposals from the Ministry of Finance, the MAE and MOIT, may adjust export operations and apply a reference price frame for export rice (khung giá gạo xuất khẩu); it is a tool applied when announced, not a standing minimum price. Rice importers must notify MOIT of their import plans and of changes to them (Articles 3(5) and 22), and existing importers had 45 days from 1 October 2026 to register their plans.

Under Decree No. 342/2026/ND-CP, which replaces Decree No. 09/2018/ND-CP from 18 October 2026, a foreign-invested company needs no trading business licence to export goods it buys in Vietnam, provided that it meets the conditions for conditional goods such as the rice certificate; domestic distribution of rice by a foreign-invested company is restricted, because rice is among the excluded goods in that regime (FAQ 95).

Low-emission rice and carbon credits

Decision No. 1490/QD-TTg of 27 November 2023 approved the scheme for one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta by 2030, targeting emissions more than 10% below traditional cultivation, collection of all straw for reuse, and branded low-emission rice above 20% of the zone's rice exports. At a March 2026 MAE conference the programme was reported to cover 354,839 ha, almost double the initial 180,000 ha target, with seed use down 45%, fertiliser 30%, irrigation water 20%, and emissions down 3 to 4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per hectare per season. A Vietnam Green Low-Emission Rice label has been launched, and a first 500-tonne certified shipment went to Japan. The programme offers investors organised cooperatives for contract farming (Agro-processing, food safety, cooperatives and contract farming), a sustainability claim for buyers in Japan and the EU, and possible carbon revenue.

Carbon is the least settled element. Decree No. 06/2022/ND-CP, amended by Decree No. 119/2025/ND-CP and Decree No. 83/2026/ND-CP, and Decision No. 232/QD-TTg of 24 January 2025 set a domestic carbon market roadmap with a pilot to 2028; the pilot trading scheme covers thermal power, steel and cement, not agriculture, so rice methane reductions are valuable mainly as offset credits or mitigation outcomes for foreign buyers. Decree No. 112/2026/ND-CP of 1 April 2026 governs the international exchange of mitigation outcomes and carbon credits under Articles 6.2 and 6.4 of the Paris Agreement: each transaction must be registered on Vietnam's national registry, and the MAE makes the corresponding adjustment for the Government. Credits cannot therefore be sold abroad informally, and contracts with cooperatives should allocate carbon rights and revenue expressly, because land use rights alone do not settle who owns a credit.

Coffee and the EU Deforestation Regulation

Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta producer, grown mainly by smallholders in the Central Highlands, now chiefly in the enlarged provinces of Dak Lak, Lam Dong and Gia Lai after the July 2025 mergers. Coffee needs no export licence; its main legal risk is Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products (EUDR), which covers coffee, rubber and wood alongside cattle, cocoa, oil palm and soya. Its application was postponed by Regulation (EU) 2024/3234 and again by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, published on 23 December 2025: it now applies from 30 December 2026 to large and medium operators and traders (and micro and small enterprises already under the EU Timber Regulation) and from 30 June 2027 to other micro and small enterprises. The Commission's simplification review of 4 May 2026 included a draft delegated act that would add soluble coffee to the scope; its adoption had not been confirmed at 16 October 2026.

Under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093, Vietnam is classified as low risk. EU operators placing Vietnamese coffee on the market therefore follow simplified due diligence: they must still collect the required information, including the geolocation of every plot and evidence that the coffee was produced in accordance with Vietnamese law, but need not assess and mitigate risk unless information points to one, and the authorities' checks cover about 1% of operators. The duty falls on the EU operator, but the Vietnamese exporter must in practice deliver lot-level traceability to the farm. The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association estimated in August 2026 that only 35% to 40% of supply could yet comply. The legality limb ties back to land use rights (Agricultural land and land accumulation).

Pepper, cashew, rubber, tea and cassava

Pepper exports reached a record USD 1.66 billion in 2025 on 247,482 tonnes, up 26% in value (Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association), while 42,688 tonnes were imported for processing and re-export. Cashew kernel exports passed USD 5 billion for the first time, at about USD 5.2 billion on 766,585 tonnes, but domestic raw nuts cover only about 10% of needs and more than 2.9 million tonnes were imported, mainly from Africa and Cambodia. Both sectors turn on import law as much as export law: quarantine of raw material (Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and plant quarantine), inspection and payment terms in contracts with foreign sellers, and residue limits in the EU and the United States.

Natural rubber is within the EUDR, so traceability to the plantation becomes a condition of EU sales from December 2026; in the first nine months of 2026 exports fell to 1.1 million tonnes and USD 2.18 billion, with China the dominant buyer. Tea is small, USD 167.9 million in the same period, and sensitive mainly to EU pesticide limits. Cassava products go almost wholly to China, which took more than 95% of volume in April 2025 on customs figures, so their exposure is to Chinese rules and demand.

Free trade agreements, trade remedies and market rules

The key agreements are the EVFTA (in force since 1 August 2020), the UKVFTA (since 1 May 2021), the CPTPP (for Vietnam since 14 January 2019) and the RCEP (since 1 January 2022); the general mechanics are in Customs and import duties. Under the EVFTA the EU grants Vietnamese rice an annual duty-free quota of 80,000 tonnes, 30,000 tonnes milled, 20,000 tonnes husked and 30,000 tonnes fragrant, and has fully liberalised broken rice. The EU allocates it to its importers. Fragrant rice qualifies only if its variety is certified by the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection under Decree No. 103/2020/ND-CP as amended by Decree No. 11/2022/ND-CP, which also covers the UK quota of nearly 14,000 tonnes; nine varieties are eligible, including Jasmine 85, ST5, ST20, OM4900 and OM5451, and certification takes five working days from a valid dossier.

Green coffee already enters the EU duty-free, and pepper and cashew kernels face low duties in the main markets, so non-tariff rules weigh more: residue limits, the EU's increased official controls under Regulation (EU) 2019/1793, plant health certificates and China's registration of overseas food producers (Horticulture: fruit, vegetables and flowers).

Trade remedies are concentrated in the United States, where anti-dumping orders apply to Vietnamese frozen fish fillets, warmwater shrimp and honey (Livestock, aquaculture and animal health). The wider US tariff position has moved repeatedly since the US Supreme Court held on 20 February 2026 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise tariffs, and negotiations on a reciprocal trade agreement were reported on 1 October 2026 to be continuing, so the US duty on a product must be checked at the date of contract. Where pepper or cashew processed in Vietnam contains imported raw material, the product-specific rule decides whether it is Vietnamese for preference purposes.

Export procedures and certificates of origin

An agricultural export typically needs five sets of documents: the electronic customs declaration through VNACCS/VCIS (these commodities bear no export duty and are zero-rated for VAT, see VAT and e-invoicing); a phytosanitary certificate from the plant quarantine service of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection where the importing country requires one; food safety documents, including registration of the producer with China's customs authority for many processed goods (Agro-processing, food safety, cooperatives and contract farming); the commodity-specific papers, such as the rice certificate, the EU fragrant rice variety certificate and, from December 2026, the geolocation and legality data the EU operator needs for its due diligence statement; and the certificate of origin.

Origin is governed by Decree No. 31/2018/ND-CP detailing the Law on Foreign Trade Management, still cited by MOIT circulars as the base instrument in May 2026, with a circular for each agreement's rules. MOIT's regional import-export offices issue preferential certificates, mostly online through the eCoSys system, and since 5 May 2025, under Decision No. 1103/QD-BCT, MOIT has also issued non-preferential certificates in place of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Some agreements, including the CPTPP, also permit self-certification. A replacement decree on origin was in draft in 2025, so the instrument in force should be confirmed at shipment.

Setting up as a rice exporter (ordinary rice)

1. Form the vehicleEstablish the company (with an IRC for a foreign investor) and register rice trading and export lines; no trading licence is needed to export goods bought in Vietnam.
2. Secure the warehouse and millOwn or lease at least one dedicated paddy and rice warehouse and one milling facility meeting food safety and technical regulations, under a written lease covering the certificate's validity.
3. Apply to MOITFile the application with the self-declaration of the facilities; MOIT reports 10 working days for a complete file.
4. Pass the post-inspectionThe provincial authority where the warehouse is located inspects within 45 days; false declarations are a revocation ground.
5. Hold the reserve and reportMaintain the circulation reserve at the level fixed by the 2026 decree and circular and file the monthly report by the 5th.
6. Export regularly in own nameAppear as exporter on declarations at least once in every 12 months, with phytosanitary and origin documents for each shipment.
7. Build the rating recordLinkage contracts, a registered brand and clean tax and customs records will be scored from 1 January 2028.