Tuesday,15/09/2009 - 11:06

Vietnamto expand rice stockpile by 500,000 T

A total of 21 export firms will aim to buy the grain by end September in the Mekong Delta at a price of at least 3,800 dong (21 U.S. cents) per kg, the ruling Communist Party-run Nhan Dan (People) newspaper cited a Vietnam Food Association report as saying. The purchase volume intended for this month is equivalent to 1 million tonnes of paddy, or 25 percent of the summer-autumn crop grain available for export, industry reports said. During the first stage of the scheme, aimed at purchasing 400,000 tonnes of milled rice in August [ID:nSP465954], exporters bought nearly 491,000 tonnes, the report said. But traders said the first purchase failed to stop prices from falling during the peak of the crop harvest, because demand from key Vietnamese rice buyers remained thin. Price of paddy, or unhusked rice, was steady in the past two weeks in the Mekong Delta food basket at 3,400-4,100 dong per kg. But 25 percent broken rice eased to $315 per tonne this week from $315-$319 last week. The summer-autumn crop harvest has nearly ended in the Mekong Delta, the food association said. Vietnam exported 4.7 million tonnes of rice in the first eight months of this year, up 43 percent from a year earlier, government data show. About 80 percent of the grain went to the Philippines and several Asian countries as well as Africa. ($1=17,829 dong) Vinanet