Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter, shipped abroad 316,000 tons of rice worth 100 million U.S. dollars in the first 2 months of this year, respectively year-on-year decreases of 47.8 percent and 39.9 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office Friday.

The Vietnamese government has decided that the rice export volume should be within 4-4.5 million tons in 2007 to ensure food security.

The country shipped abroad over 4.7 million tons of rice worth 1.3 billion dollars, mainly to the Philippines, Malaysia and Cuba, in 2006, respectively down 9.5 percent and 7.2 percent over 2005.

Vietnam is expected to post paddy rice output of some 36 million tons, including 18.2 million tons coming from the southern Mekong Delta, this year.

Source: Xinhua