VietNamNet Bridge – Rice has been carried out in big quantity
across the border gates to Thailand and China these days. Experts have affirmed
this would not be a threat to the national food security, but shows the
“cracks” in the relation between farmers and enterprises.
“Rice bleeding” put big difficulties for exporters
Farmers now rush to sell rice to
merchants, who then carry rice across the borders to sell to Thai and Chinese
businessmen. This has put Vietnamese rice exporters on tenterhooks, because
they may not be able to collect enough rice to fulfill export contracts.
Truong Thanh Phong, Chair of the
Vietnam Food Association VFA said the export volume under the signed contracts
in July and August increased sharply. By August 31, 2012, Vietnamese
enterprises had signed the contracts on exporting 6.8 million tons, or 13
percent higher than that of the same period of the last year.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese exporters
would have to deliver 1.7 million tons of rice from September onwards.
Meanwhile, VFA still does not have the statistics about the rice volume kept at
exporters’ storehouses, among farmers and at factories. Especially, it is
impossible to count on the amounts of rice sold to Cambodia and China across
the border.
VFA has advised rice exporters to
keep a close watch over the stocks to be sure that they can gather enough rice
for export, or they would have to break the contracts.
Phong from VFA has said that the
rice export prices are on the rise on the world’s supply decreases. “Therefore,
I think it is a worry rather than a joy that exporters have signed contracts on
exporting rice in big quantities,” Phong said.
According to Lam Anh Tuan,
Director of the Thinh Phat Food Company Ltd in Ben Tre province, Vietnamese
enterprises now mostly sign commercial contracts with private importers, who
trade rice for profit. If Vietnamese exporters break the contracts, the
importers would not demand rice, but would ask fines for the contract breaking.
Tuan said in the worst scenario,
the importers would sue Vietnamese exporters, thus leading to the Vietnamese
enterprises losing their prestige on the world market.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan, who is
considered the most well-known rice expert in Vietnam, when commenting about
the rice sale to Thailand and China, said having short term vision is the
chronic disease of Vietnamese enterprises.
“Exporters have been living from
hand to mouth. They would sell rice cheaply if they see the profuse supply in
July or August, and they just try to export as much as possible,” Xuan said.
“No state management body can
control the rice export across the border. I’m afraid that when the rice prices
go up in the world market, Vietnam’s stocks would be empty and it would have no
rice to sell,” Xuan warned.
No threat to national food security
Phong of VFA has affirmed that
the massive exports of rice to Thailand and China would not threaten the
national food security.
“The government always pursues
the policies on food reserves. Enterprises and farmers always have the habit of
storing rice for domestic consumption. Therefore, no need to worry about the
domestic supply shortage,” Phong said.
Sharing the same view, Professor
Xuan has affirmed that the exports to Thailand and China would in no way
influence Vietnam’s rice supply. It is understandable that farmers would sell
rice to those, who pay high.
However, Xuan has pointed out the
shortcoming of the Vietnam’s policy on collecting rice from farmers for
storage, emphasizing that the mismanagement not only would make farmers incur
loss, but also cause the loss of revenue to the state budget.
Compiled by Thanh Mai
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