Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed to keep country’s total rice export volume at four million tons in 2008, down from 4.5 million tons last year, in order to ensure national food security.
At the meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the PM said by the end of the third quarter local companies should sign contracts to export 3.5 million tons.
He also instructed the companies not to hasten to ink deals because foods prices will continue soaring.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, Vietnam have exported around 340,000 tons of rice in March, bringing total rice exported in the first quarter to 799,000 tons, valued at around US$310 million.
The figures showed on year rises of 20 per cent in terms of volume and 61 per cent in terms of value.
High demand but weak supply has pushed up rice prices day by day on both the world and local markets.
Rice prices hit US$708 a ton in the Philippines last week, up nearly 50 per cent over two months earlier and posting the highest level over the past 34 years, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
Vietnamese exporters are now selling rice for US$610 a ton of high-grade rice, up from US$550 last week and US$355 a ton in December of 2007.
At local market, rice prices jumped to more than VND8,000 a kilo in Ho Chi Minh City, and to VND12,000 a kilo in Hanoi.
Formers Minister of Trade, Truong Dinh Tuyen, and Minister of Planning and Investment, Vo Hong Phuc, proposed to impose rice export tax in order to stabilize food market. The collected tax will be used for setting up a market stabilization fund and supporting transporting of rice from the southern to the north. (Local sources)
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