Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and provincial governments to take measures to stabilize the domestic rice market.
Mr Dung also required the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) and its members must stockpile enough rice to meet the domestic demand, particularly in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The association and related agencies are also requested to keep close eyes on domestic and foreign rice markets, buy almost all of rice from farmers and export rice for reasonable prices.
The PM required the MARD to balance rice demand-supply by 2009-2010 winter-spring crop and then instruct local companies to ink new deals and deliver rice in the remaining months of 2009 and early 2010.
The VFA said that Vietnamese companies had 1.724 million tons of rice in stock as of late Oct 2009.
The companies have inked deals to export 6.453 million tons, of which 350,000 tons will be delivered in 2010.
