Vietnam ceases rice exports
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
HANOI, Sept 4 (Xinhua): Vietnam has decided to cease signing rice export contracts until next year, to ensure domestic food security, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported today.
Vietnam is expected to produce 35.5 million tons of paddy rice in 2007, while 28.5 million tons are expected to be set aside for domestic demand, and 7 million tons, equivalent to 4 million tons of rice, for export, the paper quoted Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan as saying.
The country, which now has 1 million tons of rice in inventory, has so far this year inked contracts of shipping abroad some 4 million tons of rice, he said.
Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter, sold overseas nearly 3.6 million tons of rice worth roughly 1.2 billion US dollars in the first eight months of this year, down 4.8 per cent in volume, but up 12.2 per cent in value over the same period last year.
It shipped over 4.7 million tons of rice worth 1.3 billion dollars last year to nearly 100 markets, with the exports to the Philippines, Malaysia and Cuba accounting for some 60 per cent of the total.
Vietnam is expected to produce 35.5 million tons of paddy rice in 2007, while 28.5 million tons are expected to be set aside for domestic demand, and 7 million tons, equivalent to 4 million tons of rice, for export, the paper quoted Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan as saying.
The country, which now has 1 million tons of rice in inventory, has so far this year inked contracts of shipping abroad some 4 million tons of rice, he said.
Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter, sold overseas nearly 3.6 million tons of rice worth roughly 1.2 billion US dollars in the first eight months of this year, down 4.8 per cent in volume, but up 12.2 per cent in value over the same period last year.
It shipped over 4.7 million tons of rice worth 1.3 billion dollars last year to nearly 100 markets, with the exports to the Philippines, Malaysia and Cuba accounting for some 60 per cent of the total.