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Rice export management must not repeat errors: MOIT
Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Nguyen Dang Chi said that Vietnam has employed many models of rice export management and that it should not return to the ways it abandoned.
A lot of enterprises in the Cuu Long River Delta say that it is unreasonable to let Truong Thanh Phong, who is now General Director of the Southern Food Corporation, hold the post of Chairman of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) as well. They believe it has caused unfairness in rice management. What is your opinion?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs clearly stipulates the election of chairmen of associations. Rice exporters sit together in exporters’ conferences to elect the association’s management board and then elect the chairman of the association.
As Phong is a member of the association, it is quite normal for him to be elected as the chairman of the association. VFA is a professional association; therefore, it can’t have members of state management agencies.
If you want to change the rules, you have to amend the laws. Moreover, it would be disadvantageous if a government management agency came forward and undertook rice management.
We know of a case in which a company in Kien Giang province was asked to not export 53,000 tonnes of rice and I think it is understandable. MOIT could not interfere in the case. If it had done, it would have broken all the rules.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has ordered the improvement of VFA’s way of rice management. What do you think we should do?
I think that VFA needs to change its operation regulations. I know that Thai rice exporters always sit together to discuss rice export prices and solutions to problems. Meanwhile, a lot of VFA members are absent from association meetings.
VFA has said it wants to give back the function of rice management to MOIT. What is your opinion about the suggestion?
This is just the reaction of VFA to the criticism of its management work.
However, I have to remind you that exporting rice is the job of enterprises and needs to be arranged by enterprises themselves, while government agencies cannot interfere in their business.
In fact, we have employed many models of rice management in the past and we had to pay the penalty. I think that we should not repeat the errors of the past.
Could you please give some suggestions for rice export management?
We need to set up an orientation plan. We consider yearly production plans to adjust export goals. We cannot blame forecasters for inaccurate forecasts because the forecasts are given before farmers begin cultivating.
The most optimum solution, I think, is that the state purchases all rice from farmers, and those enterprises which want to export rice purchase rice from the state.
VietNamNet, TP
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