HCMC – Up to 44 food traders will be able to engage in rice export under new standards applicable from October 1, comprising 29 enterprises having been licensed and 15 others pending the stamp of approval from authorities.
Ministry licenses 44 rice exporters nationwide
By Thai Hang - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Up to 44 food traders will be able to engage in rice export under new standards applicable from October 1, comprising 29 enterprises having been licensed and 15 others pending the stamp of approval from authorities.
Phan Van Chinh, head of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told an online meeting held on Monday by the ministry that the number of eligible traders was suitable for the current situation of food trading as assessed by the ministry.
Chinh said for a rice market size like Vietnam’s, the number of traders allowed to engage in rice export should be between 50 and 60.
A new decree issued by the Government earlier this year set tougher criteria for rice exporters, but Chinh said local enterprises had up to nine months to adapt themselves to the new regulatory frame before the decree takes effect on October 1.
The ministry, Chinh said, has received numerous complaints from enterprises over new criteria, including those on the warehousing and rice milling facilities that are required to be installed in the same premises. Also controversial in such complaints are the requirement for a dryer system.
“We have worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development… and have agreed on crossing out the standard to place all equipments on the same premises,” said Chinh. “However, enterprises are obliged to have dryer systems in their processing lines.”
However, the number is deemed too small by Huynh Minh Hue, general secretary of the Vietnam Food Association, or VFA.
Compared to the current number of rice exporters in the year’s first half at 211, Hue said, such a small number of food exporters would be unable to keep up Vietnam’s rice export in the upcoming time.
VFA told its recent review conference that 80 rice exporters should be licensed to ensure international competiveness.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien said the ministry would have a review on the disqualified documents from rice traders. The implementation of Decree 109 should not restrict the number of rice exporters given that market stability is needed, Bien said.
According to VFA, rice export in the January-July period reached over 4.6 million tons. Rice exporters are expected to have shipped some six million tons by the end of the third quarter, and thus will only have to export one million ton in the fourth quarter to reach the record volume of over seven million tons this year.