More and more rice exporting companies have complained about the way the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) regulate rice exports, reducing the exporters’ profit.
In February VFA announced halts of exporting rice to ensure national food security; however, it said in a statement issued on May 4 that it allows local firms to resume rice exports, an official of a firm said.
The official added that local companies had signed contracts to export 3.6 million tons of rice, surpassing supply.
“We suspected that the VFA wants to manipulate the rice export market because Truong Thanh Phong, VFA’s chairman, is general director of the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2)”, an official of a firm, who did not want to be named, said.
Another official said only after three months of cultivation, Vietnam has new crop, food security is important but rice export regulation should be flexible.
The companies said although the government takes main responsibility for regulating rice export, but the VFA also plays an important role.
They said in February 2009, they won contracts to export 5 per cent broken rice for $460/ton, but the government asked to stop inking new deals for delivery in the first half.
Late April 2009, Thailand announced to export 3.8 million tons of stockpiled rice, and India planned to export one million tons of rice, reducing rice export price at the world market.
The companies said importers now offered Vietnamese rice at only $380-$410/ton, down $20-$40/ton from middle April. At domestic market, rice and paddy price also decreased VND500-VND600/kilogram.
“This was the third time Vietnamese companies and farmers have lost chances to export rice for high price. The first time was in 1998 when rice price rose as the Philippines, Indonesia and China reported poor crop due to El Nino, Vietnam banned rice export. When the ban was removed, the price dropped. The same regulation way was repeated in 2008, and 2009,” Pham Vy Ben, director of the Thap Son JSC, which supplies 800,000 tons of rice for export and domestic market annually, said.
The VFA has recently suggested the government allow to increase rice export volume in 2009 from five million tons to 5.2 million tons. (Labor)
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