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Helping farmers sell rice
With nearly 1.6 million ha of rice paddies, farmers in the Mekong Delta region will harvest about 6 million tonnes of rice in this year’s winter-spring crop.
But falling prices and difficulties in landing new export contracts are leading to surplus of rice. The General Secretary of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), Huynh Minh Hue, granted VOV an interview on the situation.
VOV: What measures has the VFA taken to help the farmers sell their rice?
Mr. Hue: The Government and the VFA are responsible for helping farmers sell their rice at a reasonable price to ensure them a 30 percent profit. To accomplish this, the VFA is focused on increasing exports and getting prepared to buy the rice itself if need be.
If exports are not timely, the VFA will ask distributors and exporters to buy rice for temporary storage to ensure a profit for the farmers. While waiting for the Ministry of Finance to set a reasonable price, rice is commanding at VND4,000/kilo and can bring a 40 percent profit to farmers.
Export businesses plan to buy about 1 billion tonnes of rice in March and April, when farmers harvest their winter-spring crop. Prices will be widely publicized in the media.
VOV: The biggest problem businesses are facing is the shortage of capital. What have the government and the VFA done to help them?
Mr. Hue: The Prime Minister has asked banks to grant loans to businesses with priority given to the Northern and Southern Food Corporations. The VFA will ask commercial banks to give a priority to businesses participating in the storage programme.
VOV: Can businesses ensure the quality of exported rice after it has been stored for a long time?
Mr. Hue: All the businesses participating in the programme are able to store and preserve rice for at least 3-4 months and are financially sound.
VOV: What has the VFA done to prevent importers from speculation and domestic exporters from dumping?
Mr. Hue: It is true that foreign businesses want to buy goods at cheaper prices and they will force domestic businesses to sell rice cheaply, so we need to have a mechanism to prevent the dumping of rice.
The VFA has issued a directive asking exporters to sell rice at specified prices and those who violate the directive will be fined.
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