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New rice price structure aims to help local farmers
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked central-level cities and provinces' People's Committees to set prices of unhusked rice sold to middlemen so that farmers can earn profits of at least 30 percent.
In a dispatch issued last Friday, Dung requested that People's Committees ask foodstuff companies in cities and provinces to buy unhusked rice at prices announced by the committees.
Normally, middlemen bought unhusked rice from farmers and processed it, then sold the husked grains to distributors and exporters. Farmers usually have to sell rice at prices offered by middlemen, and often suffer losses.
The Ministry of Finance must co-operate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to promptly issue regulations and guidance on calculating production costs, which will be the foundations for the set prices.
Dung also asked rice exporting companies to have plans to link with traders to buy rice from farmers at the announced prices.
Viet Nam Foodstuff Association (VFA) members must reach an agreement on the volume of unhusked rice and on times to buy it. Companies tasked to buy unhusked rice for stock must pay all maintenance costs.
At the end of February, the association asked 30 member companies to buy 1 million tonnes of rice for stock. Until March 10, rice reserves were more than 500,000 tonnes.
According to the VFA, since the beginning of the year, the country has exported 761,000 tonnes of husked rice, worth US$362.6 million.
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