Vietnam 11th best performer in Asia food security ranking
Vietnam 11th best performer in Asia food security ranking
Vietnam, a top world rice exporter, ranked 11th out of 23 economies in Asia-Pacific and fourth in Southeast Asia in the latest food security index.
Farmers harvest rice in An Giang Province, March 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa.
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The country scored an overall 60.3 out of 100 points, placing it at 63rd among 113 countries and territories, while adding it to the 'good performance' category, according to the report released by Economist Intelligence Unit, a division of U.K.-based Economist Group.
Compared to Southeast Asian peers, Vietnam lags behind Singapore (19), Malaysia (43) and Thailand (51), though ranking above Indonesia (65), Myanmar (70), the Philippines (73), Cambodia (81) and Laos (90).
The ranking measured economies based on four indicators including affordability, availability, quality and safety, along with natural resources and resilience.
Vietnam performed best in availability at 48th, which measured factors like food supply adequacy, agricultural research and development, volatility of production and political stability.
The report said Vietnam ranked 63rd in affordability, which included presence and quality of food safety net programs, access to financing for farmers, change in average food costs, and the proportion of population under global poverty line.
Vietnam, a tropical country habitually hit by drought, ranked 67th in natural resources and resilience and 68th in quality and safety.
Finland topped the index, followed by Ireland and the Netherlands.
Conflict-torn Yemen, Burundi and Venezuela rounded out the bottom three.
Vietnam’s rice exports in 2020 were forecast to have fallen 3.5 percent to 6.15 million tonnes, according to preliminary data from the government. Rice export revenue last year climbed 9.3 percent to $3.07 billion.
The country experienced irregular rice harvests last year as a result of dry weather and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, a rice growing hub.
