Rice exports: a buyer’s market in 2009

Rice exporters will face fiercer international competition this year, according to experts at a Viet Nam Food Association conference to review rice production and exports for the past year, held in the southern coastal city of Nha Trang on Saturday.

Rice exports this year should total about 5 million tonnes as countries seek to hold onto supplies and build their food reserves as a precautionary measure against the global economic downturn, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Information Centre has predicted, based on an analysis of the global situation by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The FAO believes that rice yields will increase overall but the market will decrease due to the economic crisis.

High yields and tigthened demand would favour buyers, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien, so Bien urged the association to apply strategies to promote exports.

Bien said the ministry would invest more in trade promotion and asked the association to forecast productivity of various types of rice for export, helping farmers select appropriate varieties for production and match their plans to the needs of exporters.

The association annually sets targets to purchase rice from farmers at beneficial prices and regularly lobbies the Government to lift limitations on rice export volumes. Meanwhile, it manages rice exports in line with annual instructions from the Government and ministry.

This year, the association plans to support a proposed regulation under which it would purchase and stockpile rice in case of adverse impacts from fluctuations on the export market. The purchases would ensure the interests of farmers and exporters by preventing dealers from lowering prices.

Nguyen Hung Linh, general director of the Kien Giang Tourism and Trade Company, also suggested quotas be granted for purchasing from such rice reserves.

Can Tho rice market

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, meanwhile, has told the city of Can Tho to do whatever is required to promptly complete its new VND85.8 billion (US$5 million) rice wholesale market.

Construction of the 23ha market was approved back in 2004, and it was orginally scheduled for completion in 2007.

Dung has also instructed concerned ministries and agencies to assist the city authorities in tackling hindrances to the completion of the project in Thot Not District, including site clearance and construction of related facilities like embankments and approach roads.

Once complete, the market will act as a regional rice distribution system as well as a modern rice trading floor for producers and traders.

Thot Not lies in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, the country’s premier rice-growing region and home to more than 50 companies that buy and process rice for the domestic and export markets.

The area comprising the city of Can Tho and the provinces of An Giang, Kien Giang, and Dong Thap exports over a million tonnes of rice annually. Major export markets for Viet Nam rice include the Philippines, Africa, India and Pakistan.

The FAO has predicted that prices for Vietnamese rice this year would rise at a slower pace than last year. It expects fertiliser and other farmer costs to fall by as much as 50% from last year, protecting farmers from losses. (VNS)