In a June 20 press conference, then-president elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. claimed that Vietnam and Thailand imposed a ban on their rice exports. It is false.
When asked about his priorities as incoming Agriculture secretary, Marcos Jr. said:
“First of all will be to try to increase production as we come into the harvest period during, before, and after the rainy seasons. Hopefully, we can counteract some of the increases in prices. You may have noted that Thailand and Vietnam, for example, one of our main sources of imported rice, have decided to ban their rice exports, at least for now. So, we have to compensate for that by increasing production here in the Philippines.”
Source: ABS-CBN News Channel, FULL PRESS BRIEFING: President-elect Bongbong Marcos discusses economic priorities, June 6, 2022, watch from 5:40 to 6:22
While Vietnam did ban selling rice overseas in March 2020, it resumed exporting the grain on May 1, or just after two months, and has not stopped since then. Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that the country’s rice exports even increased in volume, value, and price in the first quarter of 2022.
There is no record that Thailand has issued a rice export ban. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service report for June this year noted an increase in Thai rice exports this year due to rising demand and the weakening of the Thai baht.
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