Vietnam plans five-tier credit ratings for rice exporters

Exporter ratings to shape contract allocation

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed a five-tier credit-rating system for rice exporters, introducing a new mechanism for allocating business under centralized export contracts. The measure appears in a draft regulation on rice import and export operations that is being circulated for comments from relevant parties.

According to Thanh Nien, the draft is intended to replace Government Decree 107/2018 and Decree 01/2025. Export traders would be scored and assigned one of five ratings: very high, high, medium, low or very low creditworthiness. Their rating would become an important basis for appointing companies as lead traders in centralized contract negotiations and distributing the related export quotas.

The proposal could change access to a segment of Vietnam’s rice trade in which contracts are coordinated centrally rather than secured independently by individual exporters. Companies with stronger operating records and compliance would gain priority, while lower-rated traders would face progressively smaller allocations.

Annual performance and compliance to determine scores

Assessments would be based on each trader’s business results over one year. The criteria would include export volume and market development, as well as compliance with reporting requirements and rules on maintaining rice stocks for circulation.

The draft therefore links access to centralized contracts with both commercial performance and regulatory conduct. Exporters seeking larger allocations would need to demonstrate not only sales capacity but also market-building activity, timely reporting and compliance with stockholding obligations.

For rice buyers, the system may concentrate centralized contract volumes among a narrower group of Vietnamese suppliers with stronger documented performance. For exporters, it raises the commercial importance of reporting systems, inventory management and evidence of market development. The source text does not specify when the ratings would take effect or how individual criteria would be weighted.

Lead traders retain a direct export share

Under the proposed rules, a lead trader would be allowed to export directly 20% of the rice volume covered by a centralized contract. If two lead traders are involved, the company that directly signed the contract would receive two-thirds of that 20% share, while the other lead trader would receive the remaining one-third.

A trader in the very-high-credit category could receive an allocation no larger than that assigned to a lead trader. At each successively lower rating level, the allocated volume could not exceed 50% of the volume granted to the immediately higher category. This creates a steep hierarchy between adjacent tiers and makes the final rating commercially significant.

Policy targets stronger rice value chains

Some companies cited by Thanh Nien said Vietnam has a large number of rice exporters but relatively few strong businesses. Many mainly operate as traders, buying and reselling rice without developing integrated value chains.

The government’s stated direction is to build rice value chains that connect production with consumption and encourage companies to invest more in production. The proposed rating system is presented as a way to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic exporters in Vietnam and international markets. Its practical impact will depend on the final scoring rules, the transparency of assessments and the amount of rice traded through centralized contracts.