Export rice price up 13 percent in one week

Hanoi (VNA) - Export rice prices are on the rise. The price of 25 percent broken
rice has climbed nearly 13 percent since the middle of last week, to 350 USD a
tonne, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Policy and
Strategy Research Institute.

The institute attributed the rise to larger contracts from Nigeria and the
Philippines , with the Philippines recently contracting to buy 500,000 tonnes of
this kind of rice from the Southern Food Corporation.

Nigeria has already bought 250,000 tones from Vietnam , citing prices 80-90 USD
lower than in Thailand .

The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu also recently exported 25,000 tonnes of
high-quality rice to Europe at a price of 887 USD a tonne.

The province planted 20,000 ha with high-quality rice, yielding 6 tonnes per ha.
This is part of a Government programme to plant a million ha with high-quality rice
in southern Vietnam by 2010.

About 700,000 ha nationwide is currently planted with high-quality rice, supplying
about 3.5 million tonnes per year.-Enditem