The Vietnam Food Association on March 26 issued a new regulation on the registration for rice export contracts in 2008 with an aim to limit rice export quantity to ensure national food security, the Vietnam & World Economy reported.
The rice volumes that exporters are allowed to register for export in the first half of 2008 must not exceed 50 per cent of average export quantity of the last two years, 2006 and 2007, the regulation showed.
The regulation also said that exporters have to ensure to storages of at least 50 per cent of the registered export volumes by attaching a report to the application for export contract registration.
The total amount of export rice will not be allowed to surpass the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s quarterly balance that was developed based on the Government’s quota, it said.
Additionally, contracted export price must be complied with the price announced by Vietfood at the time of signing contract and the delivery time must be within two months since the signing date.
The Prime Minister had issued a guidance on the amount of rice export in 2008 at only four million tons.
The decision, issued at the time farmers in Mekong Delta provinces entering new harvesting crop, has pulled down paddy prices in the Vietnam’s rice hub.
Currently, paddy is now selling for VND4,250 or VND4,400 a kilo, down from VND4,500 or VND4,700 a kilo several weeks earlier.
Export prices of Vietnamese rice are also falling, by 1.6 per cent. 5 per cent of broken rice decreased to US$600 a ton from US$610 while 25 per cent of broken rice was traded at US$550 a ton, down by US$10 a ton from a week earlier. (Vietnam & World Economy, Vietnam Economic Times)
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