The news about how cheap, high quality rice from Cambodia is suddenly being transported through the border at An Giang Province at an alarming rate reaffirms that the country’s farmers are very vulnerable.
In the fierce competition against farmers in Thailand and other countries where farmers are supported by innovative farming technologies, it seems as if Vietnamese farmers are in this fight alone.
Farmers from Vietnam’s rice bowl are now stuck with thousands of tons of IR50404 variety rice harvested from their fall-winter crop.
They thought rice dealers would be interested and were not expecting them to buy fragrant rice like Jasmine or Khaodawkmali for only VND5,000- 5,300 (US$0.29-0.31) per kilogram.
Here’s part of the problem: Vietnamese prefer high-quality rice while its domestic farmers often grow the variety that simply doesn’t taste as good, such as the IR50404.
Domestic rice companies often import better quality rice and then resell it.
In Thailand, the price for its Thai White Rice Grade B dipped from $770 per ton in August to $720 in September and then to the current $580.
Then countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia have refocused to increase production in a bid to meet domestic consumption and prevent future food shortages.
A dealer told The Bangkok Post that Thailand has had trouble selling rice in the Philippines since that country was already flooded with at least 600,000 tons of Vietnamese rice.
That’s why the Thai government had to announce at the end of September its plan to buy 8 million tons of unhusked rice at above market prices.
A kilogram of Khaodawkmali 105 unhusked rice is being sold at VND7,800; white rice at VND6,800 and Thai glutinous rice at VND5,830 per kilo.
Perhaps the amount that was transported to Vietnam is leftover from the unsold stockpiles in the Thai government’s buyout plan offered to its farmers.
There has been also criticism over Vietnamese farmers continuing to growing IR50404 rice which has a 15- 25 percent broken grain rate.
IR50404 is easier to grow and yields higher output, unlike the Jasmin 825 variety. So it’s understandable why Vietnamese farmers prefer IR50404.
We often saw officials suggesting that farmers not grow IR50404 but who can guarantee that the rice will sell faster if they choose to grow higher-quality varieties?
Farmers are left with no choice and must go with something stable.
For domestic food export companies: why not localize an area in which farmers can grow rice of preferable quality?
For the government: why not actively bring our rice to customers, no matter where they are located?
Thailand brings its unhusked rice to be processed in La Camarque in France. They are working on packaging and bringing their rice to Europe’s supermarkets.
We can do the same. Our companies in the seafood industry have been able to bring our products to Europe? Why are we not doing that with rice?
By Vo Tong Xuan
*Vo Tong Xuan is the former rector of An Giang University. He was recently awarded the Dioscoro L. Umali Achievement Award for Agricultural Development. |
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