Vietnam to allow local companies to buy rice

The Vietnamese government will allow domestic companies to start buying winter-spring rice from next month to build a stockpile equivalent to 1 million tonnes of husked grain to avoid price falls, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. The purchases will start on February 20 and Vietnam Food Association members will buy paddy at a price above 5,000 dong ($0.24) per kg, the association's chairman, Truong Thanh Phong, was quoted as saying in the report released late on Tuesday.
The purchase volume, equivalent to 2 million tonnes of unhusked grain, is on par with last year's plan but the start of the stockpiling is earlier than last year's March 2012 start as domestic prices have already dropped in recent weeks during farmers' early harvest.