Minister of Agriculture and Environment Do Duc Duy emphasized this when concluding a meeting on rice production and consumption in the Mekong Delta organized by the ministry on March 4.

Vietnamese rice price drops the most, are export businesses selling off?

According to Mr. Duy, rice exports have recently encountered difficulties in both quantity and price due to increased supply, especially from India, while demand has not increased significantly.

However, Mr. Duy said that the problem is that in the context of all countries facing common difficulties, our country has the deepest decrease in export prices.

"This is a problem that we need to look at frankly and objectively. Besides the difficulties when countries reduce imports, are there problems coming from our partners?

In industry associations, is there unhealthy competition among businesses? Is there a phenomenon of selling off when the market drops?

I think there is a problem in the fact that we buy and sell through many intermediaries, so traders buy rice at low prices, reducing profits and affecting the psychology of farmers.

Localities must also look at it frankly. I am very concerned that the rice export price of other countries has also decreased, but why has our country's decreased so much? Therefore, we must have the right and accurate solution to this problem," said Mr. Duy.

Establish inspection team for rice exporting enterprises

In the context of a difficult export market and the Mekong Delta entering the main winter-spring harvest with large output, Mr. Duy suggested that units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment closely monitor developments in the world rice market, especially policy adjustments in major rice exporting countries such as India and Thailand.

At the same time, grasp the demand for rice imports in large markets with much room such as the US, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East to make timely adjustments to production and export plans in line with market developments.

Regarding the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr. Duy proposed to soon establish interdisciplinary inspection teams to inspect and evaluate the implementation of Decree 107/2018 on rice export business, including issues regarding mandatory reserve requirements and conditions for businesses to meet.

"This inspection is necessary to help us see if there are any problems that businesses are not complying with, so we can correct them, and create a healthy competitive environment among businesses," said Mr. Duy.

Mr. Duy suggested that the State Bank take the lead in researching and calculating the arrangement of credit sources for capable enterprises with logistics warehouse systems to borrow to buy rice for temporary storage during periods of market fluctuations.

At the same time, direct commercial banks to create favorable conditions for people and businesses to access credit sources with reasonable interest rates to meet credit needs for purchasing rice for export, especially purchasing commercial rice for this winter-spring crop and the following crops.

"Localities are stepping up production expansion according to business orders. We produce to sell what the market needs, not what we have. When doing this, we naturally create a sustainable chain of links," said Mr. Duy.

Mr. Duy also suggested that rice exporting enterprises proactively seek markets, especially traditional customers, and strengthen production, processing, and consumption chains to overcome the situation of farmers' rice price pressure and minimize intermediaries.

"We request that businesses that do business properly report promptly information about cases where businesses do not do business seriously, force down prices, sell off... affecting the market, so that corrective measures can be taken," Mr. Duy emphasized.