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Trade Ministry calls for surge in rice exports
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) to expedite delivery on rice export contracts and step up efforts to sign new ones.
The instruction comes as part of efforts to ensure rice farmers are able to sell their output in the last months of the year, and to meet the Government's planned export target of 4.5 million tonnes for this year.
With rice prices falling even lower in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, the country's largest granary, the quantity of unsold rice remains large.
Traders are now buying dried rice at VND3,500-3,700 a kg and wet rice at VND2,500-2,700 a kg, the lowest prices so far this year.
At these prices, farmers say they are big losers, as they spend VND3,300-3,900 to produce a kilo of rice.
The delta's main rice planting provinces, including Dong Thap, Kien Giang, An Giang, Tien Giang and Hau Giang, each now has an average of 100,000-600,000 tonnes of unsold rice, according to the departments of Agriculture and Rural Development in Cuu Long Delta provinces.
The large amount of unsold rice and wet weather are being blamed for the price drop. Many farmers are having to sell their wet rice at low prices after harvesting, because they lack drying facilities.
In An Giang Province, the price of rice has now fallen to VND6,000 a kg, a drop of VND350 compared to last week.
Food companies say they are now trying to find warehouses to stock rice from coming harvests, as they already have stockpiles from purchases made under a Prime Ministerial directive in early August.
The Cai Rang Food Trade and Processing Station under the Song Hau Food Company, for example, can now only purchase 20 tonnes of rice a day because its warehouses are full and the low quality of rice that is wet and has turned yellow due to the rainy weather.
The station had bought 150-200 tonnes of rice a day, up 30-40 per cent compared to the period before the directive, said station head Pham Minh So.
Vietnam exported 3.38 million tonnes of rice in the first eight months of the year, earning over US$2.2 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.
VNN
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