Vietnam will remain cautious in choosing rice importers and ship most of its rice export to its loyal markets, confirmed the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Nguyen Thanh Bien, deputy minister of the Industry and Trade said the country will not increase the rice exports this year, even may have to reduce in order to ensure national food security as the longest cold snap has seriously damaged northern paddy fields.
Ministries of Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Vietnam Food Association submitted proposals to alter the structure of exports, which will focus on providing enough rice for the domestic market.
The proposal stipulates that rice exports must not cause any losses to the government, domestic companies, and the farmers. Central to the proposals was that rice exports will not negatively impact on the domestic rice prices.
The government is to pay particular attention to rice exports while also noting failures of some crops in the northern provinces, Bien said, advising that the government will provide rice to these areas if necessary.
Meanwhile, export prices of Vietnamese rice keep rising since the beginning of this year due to thin supplies on the world market.
In early January, the 5 per cent broken rice was priced at US$355 a ton, while it soared to US$400 a ton February 4, up US$95-US$100 a ton on year.
According to MARD, the rice prices in the southern province of An Giang kept increasing: The paddy price increased by VND50 a kilo to VND3,850 a kilo before the Lunar New Year, while the material rice for making export products was up VND300-VND600 a kilo to VND6,000 a kilo of 5 per cent broken rice, and VND5,930 a kilo of 10 per cent broken rice), and VND5,730 a kilo of 25 per cent broken rice.
The Vietnam Food Association believes that the rice prices in the global market will continue jumping due to the increasingly strong demand, especially from Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, rice supply countries, including Vietnam and China, are facing difficulties due to the bad weather.
The association has requested its member companies to stop signing new contracts to export white rice of different kinds with deliveries in February to wait for better prices. Rice exporters need to wait for the new instructions from the Ministry of Industry and Trade before signing contracts with March deliveries.
Vietnamese companies have won the bids to export 300,000 tons of rice to the Philippines, raising the total contracted exports to 700,000 tons so far. By the middle of February, the companies had exported 160,000 tons of rice with good prices.
The Philippines has asked to import 1.5 million tons of rice from Vietnam, but the country said it is able to meet only one million tons.
Vietnam exported 4.5 million tons of rice in 2007. Despite the decrease of 2 per cent in quantity over 2006, the rice export revenues still increased by 15 per cent because the average rice export price was US$295 a ton, or US$41a ton higher than that of 2006. (Local sources)
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