Rice is one of Thailand’s main crops and Vietnam is a major competitor. On January1st 2015, ASEAN will become the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, and importtariffs between ASEAN member countries will be eliminated. Inevitably, ASEANcountries are motivated to compete fiercely under these circumstances. This articleexplores the production potential of Thai and Vietnamese rice. The results find that theVietnamese rice yield ranks first place in ASEAN, with Thai rice yield in seventh place.Can Tho province in Vietnam can produce rice for 4,978.9 baht/rai, lower than the5,800 baht/rai cost in Ayuttaya province. Furthermore, the Vietnamese governmentgenerously subsidizes farmer’s incomes with a 3 reduction and 3 increase policy;the elimination of production cost policy as well as the 30 percent income policy.Vinafood1 and Vinafood 2 companies have penetrated the foreign rice market andbeen solely responsible for generating the rice orders. The close cooperation of therice market management both within and without ASEAN is also a priority of theVietnamese government. Therefore, in order to strengthen competitiveness in the ricemarket, the Thai government should develop a policy to improve rice productivity inconjunction with a strategic plan to effectively compete in the ASEAN rice market, withthe cooperation of farmers, rice millers and exporters.