More rice bought up for reserves

Rice is loaded for export in southern Tien Giang Province. The Viet Nam Food Association will buy 500,000 tonnes of rice this week, for national reserves. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HCM CITY — Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) this week will buy 500,000 tonnes of rice from farmers for national reserves, Pham Van Bay, deputy chairman of the association, has said.

At a meeting last Friday in HCM City, VFA said Viet Nam had exported 1.292 million tonnes of rice in the first quarter of this year, at a free-on-board (FOB) export value of US$606.708 million, a fall of 18.54 per cent in quantity and 5.12 per cent in price year-on-year.

The average export price was $469.63 per tonne.

In March, the country exported 581,509 tonnes, with FOB export value of $267.985 million, a decrease of $29.31 per tonne compared with the previous month.

Pham Van Bay said farmers faced difficulties because they had no rice export contracts, and the world price continued to show a downward tendency.

Last month, the country fulfilled the targeted reserve of 1 million tonnes of rice. — VNS