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Frost damages Vietnam rice output

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Sat, 19/05/2012 - 9:19 am.

Frost damages Vietnam rice output

Vietnam’s 2008 rice output is expected to be 36.5 million tons, little changed from last year because of adverse weather in the country’s north.

The world’s second-biggest rice exporter will ship between 4 million and 4.5 million tons, compared with 4.5 million a year ago, Vietnam Food Association Chairman Truong Thanh Phong said.

A record cold spell in northern Vietnam has killed 31,000 heads of cattle and destroyed more than 110,000 hectares of paddy and rice-seeding fields, agricultural officials said on February 15.

The cold spell, which began on January 14, has sent the mercury below zero in some regions.

“The association believes that it’s possible to export as much as 4.5 million tons although the weather condition is hard to predict,” he said before meeting Thai exporters in Bangkok.

Global stockpiles of rice are projected to decline to 72.1 million tons by the end of July, the lowest since 1984, the US Department of Agriculture said early this month.

Prices of rice from Thailand, the world’s biggest exporter, reached a 25-year high of US$474 a ton this month, up $102 from January, the USDA said.

Vietnam had not quoted prices, it said.

Source: Bloomberg