Ministry eyes stable rice market

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will work with relevant ministries and sectors to ensure balanced supply and demand for rice in both domestic and export markets by the end of this year.

The ministry asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, provinces and the Viet Nam Food Association to balance the country’s volume of commercial rice for domestic consumption and exports.

People’s committees of provinces that border neighbouring countries should closely follow market developments to provide timely reports on the foreign rice markets, the ministry said. With this information, ministries and sectors will know exactly how much rice is needed in neighbouring countries at a given time and be able to respond accordingly.

Provinces along borders must also help find solutions to rice smuggling and the barter of high-quality rice for inferior product.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the national output of rice was expected to reach 25 million tonnes this year.

Meanwhile, exporters have signed contracts for 6.2 million tonnes of rice so far this year and sent 4 million tonnes abroad, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said. China received 79,207 tonnes of that volume under official export contracts.

MoIT’s Domestic Market Department said the domestic rice price increased as of early June due to good quality rice from the winter-spring crop but fell in July because of the over-supply that resulted from the summer-autumn harvest.

At the beginning of August, the price rose due to high demand for exports to African countries and China, as well as Viet Nam’s competitive advantage over Thai rice, MoIT said. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam rice market, Vietnam rice, Vietnam rice exports