PM urges stakeholders to stabilise rice price

Timely measures and solutions to be put in place

In the past eight months, China bought over 520,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam, or about 10% of Vietnam’s rice exports, down 29% annually.

HANOI: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is asking relevant ministries and sectors to deal with the situation and come up with solutions to stabilise the market and rice prices, and safeguard the interests of farmers.

This comes in the wake of news that India will restrict rice exports.

The government issued a statement, in which Pham raised concerns about India’s restriction on rice exports and its impact on Vietnam exports.

India issued an export ban on broken rice effective from September 15, imposed an export tax of 20% on white and brown rice products, accounting for 60% of India’s total rice exports, as it becomes increasingly alarmed by declining supply and food price inflation.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister requested the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, and Finance to actively monitor and closely follow the situation to implement appropriate and timely measures and solutions, and ensure food security, efficiency in rice export management, stabilise rice market prices and farmers’ benefits.

India’s restriction on rice exports is said to have an impact on the volume and price of Vietnamese rice exports. The domestic price of rice has increased significantly over the past week.

However, during a conference co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho last week, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association Nguyen Ngoc Nam still forecast that Vietnam’s rice export was likely to surpass the target set for this year.

Nam said Vietnam earned nearly Us$2.4bil (Rm10.98bil) from exporting 4.97 million tonnes of rice in the first eight months of this year, up 20.7% in volume and nearly 9.9% in value from the same period last year. Vietnam plans to ship 6.3 to 6.5 million tonnes of rice this year, or 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes more than 2021.

Asia is the biggest buyer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for more than 50%, followed by Africa and America.

The Philippines alone bought over Us$1bil (Rm4.58bil) worth of Vietnamese rice, or nearly half of Vietnam’s total export, up more than 47% year-on-year.

In the past eight months, China bought over 520,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam, or about 10% of Vietnam’s rice exports, down 29% annually.

At present, the neighbouring country has a huge demand for glutinous rice but supplies in Vietnam are insufficient. Ghana and the Ivory Coast remained stable markets for Vietnam, with more than 18% of the total rice export.