Vietnam wins new bid to sell rice to Iraq

The Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood 1) has won a bid to sell 90,000 tonnes of 5 per cent broken rice to Iraq, according to a statement made by the company yesterday, March 1.

The new bid brings the total amount of rice to be exported by Vinafood 1 to Iraq between March and May to 150,000 tonnes.

In October 2009, Vinafood 1 and the Viet Nam-Iraq joint-venture specialising in rice processing and exports won another bid to export 60,000 tonnes of high-quality rice to Iraq. The new bid is expected to help the company purchase more paddy from the winter-spring crop at higher prices from local farmers. Members of the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) are scheduled to meet in southern An Giang Province today to discuss plans to promote rice exports in 2010.

VFA said Viet Nam exported only 350,000 tonnes of rice in February, which was a drop of 45 per cent from the same period last year. Export rice contracts have decreased recently as importers were waiting for a price reduction.

"However, export potential is still brighter than it was at the end of last year," said VFA's vice chairman Pham Van Bay.

"Viet Nam will execute the contract to ship 1.85 million tonnes to the Philippines in the coming months.

The Philippines will also purchase 600,000 tonnes by the end of March and 200,000 tonnes will be purchased by private companies," he said.

Recently, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Finance to buy 50,000 tonnes of rice for the national food reserve in 2010 and to stabilise the price on the market.

Last Thursday, the VFA also asked its 30 member enterprises to purchase 1 million tonnes to put in reserves to stabilise the price of rice in the Mekong Delta region.