A farmer harvests rice in Thu Duc town, HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Soaring rice prices in recent weeks have disrupted Vietnam’s rice supply chain, with traders breaking contracts pending higher tariffs, an association has said.
After several countries limited their rice exports late last month, Vietnamese rice prices hit new highs of between $620 and $660 a ton.
But the rise in prices has caused disruption in the sector, as traders wait for prices to rise further and for that to break existing contracts with exporters. Thus, exporters are struggling to accumulate enough produce to ship their products, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said in a recent report.
There are 200 Vietnamese rice traders licensed by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and they are required to report their signed contracts to the government regularly.
But they have not been consistent in filing their reports, which has created a lack of data needed by authorities to manage the market, VFA said.
The association proposed that the government adopt more policies to better monitor and manage rice exports and rice stocks among traders and ensure fair competition.
India, the world’s largest rice exporter, banned the export of non-Basmati white rice at the end of July, making Vietnamese rice more expensive.
Last year, Vietnam was the world’s third largest rice exporter behind India and Thailand.
Vietnam’s rice exports between January and August are estimated to have increased by about 23 percent from a year earlier, to 5.9 million tonnes, according to government data.