HA NOI — The Government announced on Monday it would scrap provincial rice export quotas to free up the market. The Prime Minister called on provincial people’s committees to co-operate with State offices to help enterprises boost rice consumption. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plan to hold meetings with provincial authorities that export large volumes of rice to find local representatives for the Government’s rice export management team, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Dung said firms must closely follow the Government’s requirements and targets relating to domestic price stability.The Trade and Industry Ministry, the Viet Nam Food Association and people’s committees must boost trade promotion activities and seek new markets to increase rice exports, he said.

The association’s members should also not yield to pressure to reduce the rice export price, he said. They should also speed up delivery times and boost marketing activities and resolve commercial disputes.

The Prime Minister also called on the ministry to complete regulations on rice export management.

Dung said that in the first five months of this year, production, consumption and exports of rice had met Government targets.

Rice prices are increasing due to a rising demand on the global market, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The prices of 5 per cent broken Vietnamese rice have risen from US$380 - $390 a tonne to $405 - $410 recently. The prices of 10 per cent and 15 per cent broken rice varieties have also been increasing since early June.

The Philippines, one of the biggest buyers of Vietnamese rice, has announced it will buy an additional 700,000 tonnes from Viet Nam starting in July 2009, raising its total imports from Viet Nam this year to 2.2 million tonnes.

Malaysia also plans to buy an additional 150,000 tonnes from Viet Nam.

MARD said, in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces the 2008-09 winter-spring rice crop was 9.8 million tonnes, 90,000 tonnes more than the same period last year.

The region expects to be able to reserve this year 5.2 million tonnes of rice for export this year, while the nation has 1.37 million tonnes in stock from last year, according to MARD.

The ministry said exports in the first half of the year should reach 3.6 million tonnes and rise to 5 million tonnes by the end of this year. — VNS