The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued a document on speeding up rice production and consumption loaning in the Mekong Delta, in which Governor Le Minh Hung required commercial banks to continue implementing credit policies for agricultural and rural development and rice export.
In addition, he requires commercial banks to step up loaning programmes for connectivity models from rice production to consumption and agricultural production loss reduction.
According to the document, commercial bank branches in provinces and cities should arrange loans for businesses to purchase rice for stockpiling, processing and export in the winter spring crop in order to solve difficulties and stablise selling prices for farmers.
Aside from that, they should take the initiative in creating advantageous conditions for businesses to get loans, intensify mid and long term loans for them to expand rice warehouse system, simplify loan procedures, reduce loan approval time, diversify credit products and provide flexible loan terms to suit the trading cycle of rice firms.
Governor Le Minh Hung asks SBV branches in provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta to require credit institutions to arrange funds to meet businesses’ loan demand in a timely manner, keep a close eye on market situation and credit institutions’ rice purchase loaning in their localities to report to provincial and municipal people’s committees and SBV about solutions to clear difficulties during the implementation process.
Farmers in the Mekong Delta have entered peak harvest time of the winter spring crop in March and businesses have sped up purchase. After slightly increasing, rice price has stood still at VND5,000 a kilogram.
On March 6, traders paid ND4,500-4,600 a kilogram of IR 50404 rice variety at rice fields in An Giang, Hau Giang provinces and Can Tho city. Long grain fragrant rice fetched VND4,800-5,000 a kilogram, VND600-700 lower than the same period last year.
Meantime, fragrant and Jasmine rice price has been in down trend in An Giang and Kien Giang province. Traders have paid VND4,700-4,900 a kilogram, down about VND1,000 over the same period last year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, farmers in the Mekong Delta reap about 500,000 hectares of winter spring rice with the output of over 3.3 million tonnes in March. Of these there are 2.4 million tonnes of commercial rice for export.
Notably Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said that Vietnamese rice export price is about $32 a tonne lower than Thai rice price, swinging from $343-347 a tonne of five percent broken rice and $327-330 a tonne of 25 percent broken product.
VFA chair Nguyen Ngoc Nam believed that in 2019 Vietnam’s rice export will reach six million tonnes, a little lower than 6.1 million tonnes last year. Nam forecast that the main export market of Vietnam will be Asia this year.
From January 1 to February 15, the country shipped abroad 491,308 tonnes accounting for 66 percent of the volume during the same period last year. The number of contracts is expected to increase in the second quarter when Vietnamese rice price will be more competitive plus new import demand from China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, according to him.
