By Bernama,
Hanoi : Vietnam has forbidden paddy and rice speculation after rice fever in the country’s southern region, and assured sufficient supplies for local consumption and export, local media reported Monday.
The government has strictly banned organizations and individuals without function of food trade from buying paddy and rice for speculation, the Vietnam news agency (VNA) reported Monday quoting Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as saying in a recent official message.
People in Vietnam’s southern Ho Chi Minh City have rushed to buy rice, causing rice scarcity and price hike of up to 100 percent over the past two days, the paper said, noting that some supermarkets have regulated to sell only 10 kilogram of rice to each customers, to avoid speculation.
Vietnam’s rice supplies are sufficient for domestic use and export, Dung said. Southern Mekong River Delta, the country’s rice basket, is estimated to harvest 16.5 to 17 million tonnes of paddy rice this year, equaling to 8.5 to 9 million tonnes of rice.
Food businesses and local people have had more than 1.3 million tons of rice in inventory, after harvesting the winter-spring crop this year.
The government has asked food traders to continue to buy paddy and rice as scheduled to ensure local consumption and export.
Vietnam, the world’s second biggest rice exporter, sold overseas 859,000 tonnes of rice worth US$366 million in the first quarter of this year, posting year-on-year rises of 5.3 percent and 42.6 percent respectively, according to the country’s General Statistics Office.
The country, which reaped rice export revenues of US$1.5 billion in 2007, mainly from selling the commodity to the Philippines, Malaysia, Cuba, Indonesia and Japan, has recently capped rice export at 3.5 to 4 million tonnes in 2008.