Vietnam to sign export rice contracts with Philippines for 2010

Vietnamese rice exporters will sign export contracts with the Philippines for the year 2010, the local newspaper Liberty Saigon reported Monday.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the to-be-signed rice volume to be exported to the Philippines for 2010 will be 250,000 tons of rice. The contract signing is expected to be at the end of this month, two months earlier than usual.

The Philippine move to intensify rice procurement to boost its stockpile and assure food security amid the recent calamities will make the price of Vietnamese white rice 25 percent broken increase in the international market, said local rice traders.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, the country signed contract to export 6 million tons of rice so far this year, the record high in the past 20 years.

In the first nine months this year, Vietnam exported 4.98 million tons of rice, bringing in 2.24 billion U.S. dollars, up 34 percent year-on-year in volume, down 7.8 percent in value, said the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.