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Government raises floor price of exported rice
The Government has raised the floor price of 5 per cent broken rice exports by 4.2 per cent to US$750 a tonne this week, the Viet Nam Food Association announced on its website.
In the previous week, one tonne of the product was regulated to have a free on board (FOB) floor price of no less than $720, according to the association.
The association said the floor price regulation, which had been applicable since last month, was aimed at preventing domestic rice exporters from selling the product at low prices, which negatively impacts farmers.
According to the association’s statistics, with the shipment of 117,000 tonnes of rice in the first two weeks of July, Viet Nam has so far this year exported nearly 2.42 million tonnes of rice worth $1.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 per cent.
The bumper harvests in both southern and northern regions promise a total output of 37 million tonnes this year, more than 1 million tonnes over last year. Accordingly, the Government is likely to raise its rice export quota this year to 4.5 million tonnes, equal to the figure of last year. The domestic rice market is also expected to cool down.
The Government has limited rice exports to 3.5 million tonnes for the first nine months, promising to review the final export volume for 2008 when crop estimates are more exact.
Traders said the Government would give a final target for rice exports in September or early October this year.
According to the General Statistics Office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, rice is now Viet Nam’s fifth largest foreign currency earner, representing about 20 per cent of the country’s total agriculture, forest and aquatic product export value.
VNS
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