Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter, will ship 200,000 tonnes of the grain to Cuba next year, state media reported on Tuesday.
The deal would be worth at least $41 million based on the current market value, provided Cuba took all the lower quality 25 percent broken variety.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Kohan had agreed to allow exporters execute the government deal with deferred payment for 18 months starting from the shipment date, said the Nong Thon Nay (Rural Today) newspaper.
Nguyen Thai Nugget, general secretary of the Vietnam Food Association, said Cuba often ordered the 15 percent broken and 25 percent broken grade rice from Vietnam. The payment would be interest-free for Cuba, Hanoi's fellow communist state, the newspaper quoted Kohan's directive as saying.
Industry officials said Cuba bought 400,000 tonnes of Vietnamese rice this year in its annual plan. The Vietnamese exporters involved in the shipment would get assistance from the state-run Export Support Fund for their bank loans, the directive said.
Nugget said Vietnam had shipped around 260,000 tonnes of rice to Cuba under the 400,000-tonne contract so far this year, while the remaining 140,000 tonnes would be loaded by early next year.
An official from the state-run Vietnam Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood 1), which has long been assigned to export rice to Cuba, said his company had yet to receive the government order for the deal.
Government officials could not be reached for comment. Cuba normally imports 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes of rice each year from Vietnam and around 200,000 tonnes of the grain from China.
The Vietnam Food Association has forecast Vietnam's rice shipment this year at 3.9 million tonnes, compared with 3.82 million tonnes shipped in 2003 when it surpassed India to resume the second position after Thailand in the world's grain market.
The trade ministry put rice exports in the January-October period at an estimated 3.5 million tonnes, from 3.68 million tonnes in the same period last year.
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