Vietnam, the world’s second largest rice exporter, is reported to have shipped 4.6 million tons of rice in January-November period, raking in US$1.27 billion, down 9.4 per cent in volume and 7.1 per cent in value on-year, according to a monthly report released by the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The report also showed that as little as 200,000 tons of rice, valued at US$58 million, was sold abroad in November, representing respective falls of 24.8 per cent and 20.5 per cent against the same month last year.
Low rice export is mostly attributed to thin domestic paddy stock in combination with crop failure due to serious insect and disease infestation in the Mekong Delta region, the largest rice growing area in Vietnam.
As a result, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called for an immediate halt to all rice shipments a fortnight ago in order to ensure national food security and stabilize the domestic market, since shortage of paddies has already sent its price through the roof.
Dung also instructed the release of 100,000 tons from the national reserve to calm local markets if rice prices continued to rise, to closely watch food exports and to stringently punish rice hoarders and profiteers.
However, Vietnamese rice exporters have already been allowed to fulfill contracts signed before the ban was announced, according to a note released by the Ministry of Trade some days ago.
The move is aimed to help Vietnamese traders avoid paying high charges for rice stocks kept in port warehouses, the ministry said.
Vietnamese traders will have to pay $7 a ton for rice kept in the warehouses for one month, while ships waiting at the ports will have to pay a fee of $50,000 for 10 days delay.
In the note to rice businesses the MoT gave its sanction for the export of some 116,000 tons of rice that is already in port warehouses.
With the ban, rice exports are expected to edge down to 4.8 million tons this year from 5.2 million tons last year and 5 million tons targeted for this year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnamese farmers will finish sowing seeds for the winter-spring paddy rice by mid-December, and the next harvesting season will commence in March 2007.
Because the harvest will be later than usual by about one month, Vietnam is predicted to have little rice for exports in the first quarter of next year, the MARD said.
To help increase rice supply for the domestic market, the PM has just allowed local traders to import rice from Cambodia tax-free. No detailed figures on rice imports from Cambodia have been announced so far.
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