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Rice exporters shrug off global ranking
The Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) has said it paid little attention to the country's ranking in the world rice market but only aimed to help farmers.
VFA's deputy chairman Pham Van Bay offered this clarification yesterday after former Thai finance minister Pridiyathorn Devakula warned that Viet Nam could topple Thailand from its perch as the world's largest exporter of the grain next year if the Yingluck administration went ahead with its rice subsidy scheme.
"The new Government in Thailand has its own rice export policy, and we have no comment on it," Bay told Viet Nam News yesterday.
"We don't care whether we are ranked No 1 or No 2. And neither do we have the ambition of becoming the world's largest rice exporter.
"What we care is how to help farmers get more reasonable prices and to contribute to the nation's food security."
The US Department of Agriculture has forecast shipments from Thailand, which accounts for some 31 per cent of global rice exports, to fall from an estimated 10 million tonnes this year to 8 million tonnes next year.
The VFA hoped to export more than 6 million tonnes of rice next year, Bay said.
Thailand's rice exports had jumped 55 per cent to 8.3 million tonnes this year through September 5, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said.
Bay said as of September end Viet Nam had shipped nearly 5.9 million tonnes out of an estimated whole year figure of 7 to 7.5 million tonnes. Fulfilling all export contracts was one of the VFA's biggest concerns, he said.
Viet Nam rice prices to be affected
The high prices offered to farmers in Thailand had increased prices in Viet Nam, the Thai media said.
Thailand and Viet Nam control half of the world's rice trade estimated at 31.85 million tonnes next year, compared to 32.74 million forecast by the US Department of Agriculture.
The decrease would stem from Thai shipments falling to 7-8 million tonnes next year, down from more than 10 million tonnes this year, as a result of the subsidy plan.
The Government aims to pay 15,000 baht ($500) a tonne for paddy and 20,000 baht ($665) a tonne for Hom Mali rice, a plan that could push up white rice export prices to more than $800 a tonne from $550-560 now and make Thai rice less competitive.
"When the new crop from Viet Nam is harvested between February to March, it could affect the sale of mortgaged rice," Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, told Bangkok Post.
Paddy prices have increased by VND150 per kilo to VND6,650 - VND6,750 per kilo in the Mekong Delta since mid-September.
Price of rice sold for export rose from VND8,850 to VND9,050 in the same period.
Bay said the prices were up because of the floods threatening the summer-autumn crop.
Viet Nam has also signed another contract to export 400,000 tonnes of rice to Indonesia.
The price hikes in the global market has also had an impact on the local market. Bay said export prices of Vietnamese rice had risen by $30-50 per tonne to $540- $560 per tonne in the past few weeks.
They are expected to rise sharply in October as a result of the Yingluck government's rice mortgage scheme, he added.
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