Vietnam has given priority to ensuring it has sufficient rice supplies for domestic consumption but has ample stocks for export, the official Vietnam News Agency quoted a government minister as saying on Monday.
"The global food shortage has required priority to be given to the task of ensuring food security even though at present our country is still among few countries having much exportable rice," Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said.
Rice prices surged on Friday as Asian countries grappled with the impact of production shortfalls and said they would take stern action against hoarders and profiteers.
"The government has prepared for the possibility of food shortage," Hung said in the report. "In the short term, rice exports are limited while farmers are encouraged to step up rice cultivation," he said, during a weekend visit to survey agricultural production in the northern province of Nam Dinh.
Hung gave no details of Vietnam's rice stocks. Last week, the Vietnam Food Association said Mekong Delta farmers had harvested a bumper winter-spring crop, with output rising about 4 percent from a similar crop last year to 9.4 million tonnes. Vietnam, which had already curtailed exports for March and April, has extended a ban on new rice deals through June to help stabilise domestic food prices as it tries to tame double-digit inflation.
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