He asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to seek greater and longer-term markets.
In the near future, the Finance Ministry was required to buy sufficient rice as assigned by the State while exporters must keep a volume equivalent to at least 5% of their total exports in the past six months, and soon ship 200,000 tonnes of the grain to the Philippines and 100,000 tonnes to China as planned.
The leader said the State Bank should hold responsibility for hiking loan quota for rice enterprises. The Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises, the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation and the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation must pool resources to promptly buy rice for stockpiling.
He asked the MARD to hold meetings with leaders of provinces and agencies next week to promote rice purchase from farmers. Localities were assigned to monitor the process to ensure farmers’ legitimate rights.
The MARD and localities must hasten the restructuring of rice sector to deliver quality products, he said, adding that outcomes of the Mekong Delta rice conference must be reported to him to deal with existing issues.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the country exported 6.1 million tonnes of rice last year, earning US$3 billion.
Rice for export is mainly from the Mekong Delta and nearly 20% of the total area under the grain have been harvested.
