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First rice trading floor gets ready
The first rice trading floor in Viet Nam will debut in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Hau Giang during Viet Nam’s first ever Rice Festival slated at the end of this month.
Director Nguyen Van Dong of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department said that the trading floor would be established by the Viet Nam Food Association based on a 20ha rice market in Chau Thanh A District with an estimated total investment of VND400 billion (US$22.37 million), including a trading floor, warehouse and other services related to export rice trading activities.
This is the second farm produce exchange to be established in the country after the coffee trading floor in Buon Ma Thuot in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, added Dong.
So far, 30 enterprises had registered to trade on the floor, he said.
The first trading sessions were expected to be conducted using spot delivery contracts, but as more enterprises join the trading floor, it will expand to include futures contracts.
The floor is expected to help businesses and farmers avoid difficulties due to price fluctuations. It will also offer farmers the opportunity to apply modern technologies to improve the quality of their rice and increase Viet Nam’s competitiveness in the world’s rice markets.
In 2002, the former Ministry of Trade had a plan to establish a rice trading floor but instead the Viet Nam Food Association had now taken the initiative in setting up the trading floor for Hau Giang Province, one of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta’s largest rice producing areas. The association expected the national rice trading floor to professionalise export rice trading activities.
Rice exports increased in volume but declined in value in the first 10 months of the year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Exports reached 5.37 million tonnes, earning $2.39 billion, an increase of 33.23 per cent in volume, but a fall of 7.65 per cent in value compared with the same period last year.
Major export markets included the Philippines, Indonesia, Cuba and Iraq. Exports increased sharply to African countries and the Middle East.
vietnamnet, vietnamnews
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