Vietnam has decided to expand by 50 percent to 1.5 million tonnes a government-backed rice stockpiling scheme aimed at boosting prices during a major harvest peak, a state-run newspaper said on Tuesday. Vietnam Food Association (VFA) members have been buying grain since early March under a two-month purchase plan initially slated to accumulate 1 million tonnes of husked rice, but traders have seen little impact on export prices due to thin demand.
The association has now decided to buy another 500,000 tonnes for stockpiling and purchases are to be completed by the end of April as ample supplies of winter-spring rice have been arriving, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper said. "The world's rice market is showing positive signs so VFA has furthered implemented the stockpiling," the newspaper cited Vietnam's rice industry group as saying.
So far this month businesses have bought paddy equivalent to 789,000 tonnes of husked rice, it said. The winter-spring crop is Vietnam's largest among its three rice crops each year, with most of the grain used for export. In Vietnam paddy prices held steady so far this week, with winter-spring grain standing unchanged from last week at 3,900-4,400 dong (20.5-23.2 US cents) per kg in the Mekong Delta food basket, where the harvest ends in the middle of April.
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