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Firms respond to PM rice mandate
Business members of the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) have been actively purchasing rice from Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta in the last few days, at an average of 10,000 tonnes per day, the association said on Wednesday.
The purchases are in response to the Prime Minister’s instructions to help farmers unload all their commercial rice harvested from the bumper summer-autumn crop.
The VFA expects that the volume will soon rise to 20,000 tonnes of rice daily, at a price of around VND5 million per tonne.
August purchases by VFA businesses are expected to reach 640,000 tonnes, or 730,000 tonnes including private businesses.
The People’s Committee of Dong Thap Province has asked the State Bank of Viet Nam’s branch in the province to direct commercial banks in Dong Thap to offer enough loans to enterprises wanting to purchase rice from farmers.
The banks should consider extending loan payment deadlines, and providing new loans for farmers who have not yet sold all their rice, said the committee.
The committee has also asked the Dong Thap Food Company and Docimexco JSC to buy up the entire stock of rice from farmers in the province.
The price of rice has risen slightly following the Prime Minister’s directive to food companies to buy excess supplies of the summer-autumn rice crop.
Prices range between VND4,200-4,400 per kg in Dong Thap Province.
The VFA said paddy prices now stand at VND3,500-5,500 a kg, an increase of VND100-200 over last weekend.
Nguyen Van Dong, director of Hau Giang Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said traders were buying rice at VND4,300-4,400 a kg compared to VND4,000-4,100 a kg last week.
In Can Tho City, rice price rose to VND4,400-4,500 a kg, an increase of VND100-200 a kg against last weekend.
An Giang Province has also proposed buying an additional 200,000 tonnes of rice for national reserves.
Dong said the Hau Giang Province Food Company has bought 5,000 tonnes of rice from farmers.
Ha Van Loi, deputy director of the Hau Thanh Dong wholesale market in Long An Province, said the market had been told to purchase 6,000 tonnes of rice.
At present, the VFA is accelerating rice delivery to finish the shipment of 3.6 million tonnes under contracts for August and September. The association has not yet signed new contracts because rice prices in the world market are lower.
By the end of July, Viet Nam exported 2.8 million tonnes of rice, earning $1.8 billion, said Nguyen Thanh Bien, deputy minister of industry and trade.
The export volume declined by 7 per cent over the same period but the export value increased by nearly 90 per cent.
Bien said relevant offices are considering cutting tax rates for export rice and the rates will be adjusted as needed.
Viet Nam targets to export 4.5-4.6 million tonnes of rice this year.
VNS
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