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HANOI: Vietnam, the world’s number two rice exporter, said Friday
it would increase exports of the grain after determining the country
had sufficient supplies for the domestic market.
The move comes after officials had limited 2008
rice exports to 3.5 million tons to 4.0 million tons in a bid to
keep domestic prices down in a period of soaring inflation and to
ensure its stocks for local consumption amid the global food crisis.
“Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday
ordered the acceleration of rice exports to help farmers sell all of
their harvest and to contribute to providing supplies to the world
market,” the government said on its website.
“After having been able to sufficiently
balance domestic consumption for 2008, Vietnam is now capable of
exporting a total of about 4.5 million tons of rice,” the
government said.
In May, inflation in Vietnam had surged to 25
percent year on year, with prices for rice and other grains shooting
up 68 percent, according to Vietnam’s bureau of statistics.
Speculation about a rice shortage fuelled a run
on supplies of the grain at supermarkets in April.
But the government said the harvest “was very
good this year, in the north as well as in the south.”
“Vietnam anticipates harvesting about 37
million tons of paddy [nonprocessed rice] in 2008, which is 1
million more tons than in 2007.”
Though not a large amount, the release of more
rice could help reassure the global market, said Jonathan Pincus, a
senior country economist with the United Nations Development
Programme.
“Importers will be pleased, the rice market is
very high now, in part because of uncertainty on where the supply
will come from,” he said, adding that the move “perhaps could
even help the global prices calm down a bit.”
Since January, Vietnam has exported more than
2.2 million tons of rice—19 percent more than for the same period
in 2007, according to government statistics.
That increase in rice exports, combined with
worldwide spiraling inflation, has led to a sharp rise in revenues.
From January to May, Vietnam earned $1.2 billion
off the exports—an increase of 94.1 percent over the same period
last year, according to official estimates.
-- AFP
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