VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam unfortunately sold much of its rice before the global rice market began recovering, with export prices increasing by $10 per ton.

Chair of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) Nguyen Hung Linh on July 17 said that Vietnam’s rice export price had stayed at $390 per ton, or $10 per ton higher than a couple of weeks before. The domestic price in Mekong River Delta has been increasing by VND50-150 per kilo.

Tran Thanh Van, deputy director of Gentraco, a rice export company in Can Tho City, said the rice price has been escalating because rice exporters had rushed to collect rice from farmers to fulfill export contracts signed before with the Philippines.

As they have to deliver goods by mid-August, they need to speed up rice collection.

The rice price increases, however, have not made farmers happy. Nguyen Thanh Phong, a farmer in Tra Vinh Province, said he sold the summer-autumn rice one month ago already.

“I sold the rice at low prices and I made a modest profit of VND2 million for every 1,000 square meter of rice field,” he said. “The price has moved up, but I have no more to sell.”

“I heard from merchants that the rice prices would go down further because Vietnam cannot sign more export contracts. Therefore, I decided to sell rice one month ago to get money to pay bank loans and other expenses,” he said.

Nguyen Phu Quoc, a farmer in Dong Thap province, said he sold three hectares of IR 50404 rice one weeks ago at VND4,600 per kilo and he now regrets it because the price continues rising.

Head of the Phung Hiep district’s agriculture sub-department Nguyen The Tu has confirmed that the rice price in the locality has increased by VND100 per kilo over two weeks ago.

“I heard that merchants are hunting for rice because Vietnamese enterprises have signed more export contracts,” he said. “If only farmers had known that the rice price would go up…”

“If only the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) had given forecasts about the market demands and the prices, so that farmers could plan their production plans…” he said.

Nguyen Phuoc Tuyen from the Dong Thap provincial agriculture department has said that the rice price would stay high amid high demand in the world market.

Vietnam has won the bid to export one million tons of rice, including the bid to export 800,000 tons to the Philippines and 200,000 tons to Malaysia. Meanwhile, India, a big rival of Vietnam, is suffering from drought.

Vietnam’s five percent broken rice now can be sold at $425 per ton, up by $5 per ton over the beginning of the month, $15 per ton over June and $40 per ton over the same period of the last year.

VFA’s Chair Nguyen Hung Linh has predicted that the target of exporting 7.2 million tons of rice this year is within reach.

NLD