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Can Tho regional rice market to help cut out the middleman
Can Tho City authorities have approved the establishment of a rice market in Thot Not District to promote sales from the Mekong Delta, known as the nation's rice bowl.
The rice market is planned with several divisions to facilitate the direct sale and purchase of rice, auctions, food grains sales by telephone and online sales.
Nguyen Tien Dung, deputy director general of Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), say it will begin construction in a few months.
He says the rice market, covering 23ha, will be located in an area bordering three major rice growing provinces - An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang, as well as other areas with large rice fields including Can Tho City, Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces.
The rice market is planned with several divisions to facilitate the direct sale and purchase of rice, auctions, food grains sales by telephone and online sales.
It will also have space to display foodgrains, a warehouse with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes of rice, drying grounds, driers and processing mills.
The project has an estimated investment of VND600 billion (US$34.3 million).
The corporation is co-operating with local authorities to speed up site clearance so that construction can be slated for the middle of this year.
The rice market will also organise seminars and meetings for farmers, businesses and scientists at the beginning of rice crops to exchange experience on selection of rice seedlings and practice of advanced farming techniques to boost agricultural productivity and quality.
The marketplace will create favourable conditions for farmers and businesses to sign sales contracts free-of-charge without intermediaries.
Vinafood 2 purchases and processes around six million tonnes of rice in the Mekong Delta region. This requires the corporation to build a warehouse system to preserve rice and help farmers sell food grains at profitable price.
The corporation plans to complete a warehouse system with the capacity of 1.5 million tonnes a year by 2011. It plans to spend VND2.30 trillion ($132 million) on this with most warehouses being built in Can Tho City, Co Do, Song Hau Farms and the Thot Not rice market.
Vinafood 2 is also operating three farm produce markets in the delta: Phu Cuong Market in Tien Giang Province; Thanh Binh Market in Dong Thap Province; and Hau Thanh Dong Market in Long An Province.
VietNamNet, Viet Nam News
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