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Mekong Delta set to harvest bumper rice crop
With a good rice crop expected in the Mekong Delta and prices on the rise, farmers could be in for a windfall.
“I expect a bumper winter-spring crop, with more than 10 million tons harvested, due to the fact that the incidence of diseases has fallen sharply,” Dr. Le Van Banh, director of the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, said.
“Demand for rice in the international market is growing strongly because of the worsening famine in Africa and countries around the world increasing their food reserves,” he said.
“Meanwhile, the government plans to buy heavily from farmers and step up exports to the Philippines, Iraq, Indonesia and some African countries.”
An official from food firm Long An, who wished to remain unnamed, said around 120,000 tons of 5 percent broken rice would be exported to Iraq this month and another large quantity to Africa next month.
Demand for long-grain white rice, from which 5 percent broken rice is processed, is thus huge in January and February.
But some rice exporters predicted the winter-spring crop to be harvested only in March, a month later than expected, adding a shortage of the high-quality rice would send prices soaring.
Domestic demand too will be very high then because of Tet.
Raising the bar
After suffering losses because of growing the IR50404 variety of rice last crop, farmers switched to high-quality rice strains, according to the Tien Giang Province Agriculture and Rural Development Department.
IR50404, the cheapest variety of rice, has a 15-25 percent broken grain rate. High-quality rice only has a 5 percent rate.
Thus, rice traders are no longer interested in IR50404, preferring to buy high-quality rice to meet increased domestic demand.
In Tien Giang Province, high-quality rice has been planted on 50 percent of the area under crop and fragrant rice on 30 percent.
Other delta provinces too are seeing a similar pattern.
The Vietnam Food Association assured the Prime Minister at a meeting its members would buy high-quality rice at VND3,500-4,000 a kilogram.
At this price, farmers can earn around VND9 million per hectare if their output reaches an average six tons a hectare.
Tuoi Tre
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