The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) set new floor prices for rice exports effective from Feb. 6, reported by local Vietnam News on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the minimum export price for 5 percent-broken rice will rise to 410 U.S. dollars per ton from the current 390 U.S. dollars per ton, while 35 percent-broken rice will be exported no less than 365 U.S. dollars per ton.

VFA's move is to encourage local rice exporters not to set lower prices in the context that Vietnamese rice is now from 30 to 40 U.S. dollars lower than that from Pakistan and India.

According to VFA, in January rice export fell in both volume and value against last year. Exporters shipped 404,095 tons of rice for a free-on-board (FOB) value of 183.4 million dollars, down 35.68 percent in volume and 36.94 percent in value compared to December 2012. The average FOB price during the month was 453. 95 U.S. dollars per ton.

In January VFA members signed contracts to export 1.24 million tons of rice, besides delivery of another 637,000 tons will be made this year upon contracts signed last year.

Vietnam exported 8.04 million tons of rice in 2012, earning 3. 68 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Vietnam General Statistics Office.