HANOI (Xinhua): Vietnam has exported close to 4.5 million tones of rice, earning over 2.5 billion U.S. dollars so far this year, the local newspaper Labor reported Wednesday.

In December alone, the country's rice exporters made shipment of 234,893 tons of rice, valued over 100 million dollars, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

The Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade forecast the rice demand in 2009 from foreign importers will increase by 1 percent compared to that of 2008.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, rice is Vietnam's fifth largest foreign currency earner, accounting for 20 percent of the total export turnover of the agro- forestry-seafood group.