Since Vietnam, and the Mekong Delta in particular, started exporting rice in 1989, rice consumption is arguably at its highest point ever in 2008. Rice growers, however, have been afflicted this year because they are unable to sell their good as a result of the market being flooded with cheaper rice from neighbouring Cambodia.
No more dear rice in HCM City
The price of rice in Ho Chi Minh City has been decreasing since early November as farmers from the Mekong Delta flock the country’s largest commercial centre to sell their surplus supply of rice. The farmers are reportedly responding to the demand of rice in Ho Chi Minh City, but also to meet their own financial needs. Cheaper Cambodian rice has flooded Vietnam’s domestic market leaving local farmers with few options. “At least, I can earn money to settle debts borrowed for cultivation and reduce my full barn,” a farmer in Tien Giang Province said in sorrow. By doing everything on their own, farmers can earn VND400-700 per kilo. This is more profitable for farmers than selling to local merchants. Local merchants also say they are suffering as well because farmers have taken their business elsewhere.
The inflation of rice prices is a strange phenomenon after Vietnam opened the economy and developed into a rice exporting powerhouse. Incorrect forecasts for rice exporting markets in April and May have saddened many scientists. Professor Vo Tong Xuan condemned the forecasts by “raising his voice” in many newspaper articles with detailed analyses of rice cultivation and the profit of Mekong Delta farmers. According to incomplete statistics, Mekong Delta farmers are holding more than 500,000 tonnes of surplus rice in barns.
Many specialists said they were surprised about the “self-produce and self-sell” situation because the rice growing has basically become a commodity production industry. Farmers, in many provinces, husked rice and transported their goods to HCM City where there are 7- 8 million residents. Their self-rescue efforts are an attempt “to throw a spanner in the works” of local merchants.
Cheap Cambodian rice floods Vietnamese Market
While Vietnamese farmers suffer from surplus rice supplies, traditional rice from Cambodia seems very attractive to Vietnamese consumers. Several experienced farmers in Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang provinces have arrived in Cambodia to lease land to grow rice that will be sold in Vietnam.
Local media said the overflowing of Cambodian rice across the south-western border is unfortunately for local farmers an irrefutable reality. This year’s volume of rice is exponentially greater than previous years. In the first half of November 2008, in the region from Huu Nghi to Tinh Bien border gate along the National Road 91 in Tinh Bien District (An Giang Province), it is common sight to see rice shipments from Cambodia into Vietnam. Dozens of tricycles, with some 7 tonnes each on board, drive in single file to transport their rice. By the southern bank of the Vinh Te River, the trading is as busy as a merchant port. Most sellers and porters speak in Khmer.
On the Vinh Te river bank, a merchant reported “We are negotiating the selling price.” The heavily loaded tricycles travel one by one through the border gate to head for Tinh Bien. In a wide area on the bank of the Vinh Te River, high heaps of Cambodian rice are waiting for customers. In the river, dozens of ships from many localities like Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Thap and Tien Giang are queuing to buy the cheap rice.
At this point, when the domestic rice market is almost stagnant, high-quality rice is winning the heart of domestic consumers.
Huy Binh-Dinh Tuyen
Vietnamese
