The Government particularly cares about rice harvesting, consumption and exportation as the summer crop in the Mekong Delta is about to enter the major harvest, said Mr Truong Thanh Phong, President of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), at a press conference on rice consumption and exportation held by VFA on June 4 in Ho Chi Minh City.
Minimising damage for farmers
VFA said as the world market sees buyers outnumbering sellers in July and August; the Government will have specific solutions to this issue, which is highly expected to a support for buying 1 million tonnes of rice from June 15 to July 31. Given the fact that rice exporters are currently incurring a loss of US$25-30 on each tonne sold and none wants to purchase more rice. As a result, VFA will have to appoint enterprises to buy rice rather than shoulder hardships on farmers. Rice growers may earn less but they cannot sell below input cost.
With market solution, VFA accepts to lower export prices to boost overseas shipments in order to push up domestic prices. This measure may bring more losses to businesses but it is hoped it will prevent the domestic rice price from further falling. For the time being, the top priority is not how to help farmers earn 30 percent of profit on rice sold but how to sell the staple. So, to prevent rice prices from falling down further and keep prices at acceptable levels, rice purchase for temporary stockpile must be done rapidly to stir up the market. The Government is encouraging businesses to quickly purchase rice to enjoy preferential interest rates. The rate subsidy period is fixed three months. Companies will enjoy more rate support if they purchase earlier.
Seeking new markets
Experts say that present inventory of rice is very high in the world. For instance, Thailand has 17 million tonnes and India has 35 million tonnes in stock. The two markets expected to import rice most are China and Africa. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, China will be the largest rice importer this year with 3 million tonnes. But, in reality, China imports rice in order to stabilise its domestic rice market. It only buys Vietnamese rice when the selling price is lower than Thai rice by dozens of US dollars each tonne. Otherwise, it will buy the cereal food from Myanmar at the lowest prices in the world.
African countries are expected to import more rice this year than last year. This market buys about 6.4-6.5 million tonnes annually. Therefore, VFA will seek to increase rice exports to more African markets other than only some now. From the beginning of this year, Vietnam signed government-level contracts to export 1.1 million tonnes. Due to far distance, they only accept to buy Vietnamese rice when prices are lower than those of India. However, payment is still a difficulty in trading with African markets. Mr Truong Thanh Phong said if we keep domestic rice prices not too low till the end of July, we are successful because the world rice market bustles back. Many regular importers of Vietnamese rice like Indonesia and Malaysia will return to buy.
PV
Đăng ký: VietNam News
