The Vietnam Food Association has announced that it is to increase its target ofstockpiling rice from 1 million tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes.

“The pricewill be set in accordance with the market and will satisfy the winter-springcrop guarantee of a minimum 30 percent profit for farmers,” said vice chairmanof the association Pham Van Bay.

According to Bay, the completion of thewinter-spring crop harvest in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta has seen riceprices jump to between 4,200 VND to 4,500 VND (0.22 to 0.24 USD) per kilogram.

He said that businesses had collected around 790,000 tonnes of the 1million tonnes required. However, a lack of storage facilities and a gloomyexport market have slowed purchase.

Bay, however, was still optimisticabout the rice export market after competitor countries such as Indonesia andBangladesh suffered from poor harvests.

The association has asked itsmembers to continue to stockpile rice and launch a website with up-to-datemarket information and support for farmers.

As of March 18, the countryhad signed contracts to export 3 million tonnes of rice, a drop of 12 percentagainst the same period last year, according to the association.

Of thesigned contracts, the country has shipped nearly 1 million tonnes worth 465million USD, a reduction of 25.9 percent in volume and 12.8 percent in valueagainst the same period last year.

However, things are looking up now asseveral importers negotiate purchases of more rice from Vietnam and exportprices show an upward trend, according to the association.

Over the pasttwo months, rice exports were implemented mostly via government-to-governmentcontracts.

However, rice exporters have now begun to get commercialcontracts, the association said.
Several markets like Indonesia, Bangladeshare also planning to import rice from Vietnam, it added./.