Vietnam may export four million tons of rice in 2008, up from 3.5 million tons set previously, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Thanh Bien, said at the rice export meeting in Tien Giang recently, local media reported.
The Vietnam News Agency cited the deputy minister as saying that the above 4 million ton of rice export volume is possible.
Bien said after the country fulfill its newly set target to export 4 million tons of rice by late September, the ministry will ask the government to allow exports of additional hundreds thousands tons of rice according to localities and the Vietnam Food Association (VFA)’s suggest, and if domestic supplies can meet demand.
At the meeting, representatives of Mekong Delta provinces like Kien Giang, Long An, An Giang, Dong Thap and Tien Giang proposed the prime minister to raise this year’s rice export volume target to 4.5 million tons, saying that the region’s paddy supplies are now very rich.
The deputy minister estimated that Vietnam exported 2.1 million tons of rice in the first five months of 2008, out of total 2.4 million tons under already signed contracts. The country needs to ink deals to export around 1.6 million tons in late months of 2008 to meet set target at 4 million tons.
Bien also said the ministry has asked the prime minister to allow local companies to continue singing new contracts with good prices.
According to the ministry, export prices of Vietnamese rice were averaging at US$487 a ton during the first four months of 2008, up by US$198 per ton on year.
As of middle May, southern provinces have harvested 11.5 million tons of winter-spring paddy from 1.835 million hectares under cultivation, up 5.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the provinces have cultivated 1.179 million hectares of paddy for summer-autumn crop, up 14.4 per cent on year.
Northern provinces have cultivated 1.127 million hectares of winter-spring paddy, according to the General Statistics Office, (Local sources)
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