Vietnam to ship 300,000 tons of rice to Indonesia

Vietnam has won a contract to sell 300,000 tons of 15% broken rice to Indonesia, which will fuel rice export activity in the near future. Indonesia needs to import 500,000 tons of rice this time.

Nguyen Ngoc Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) and acting general director of Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), told the Daily last Saturday this is the third Indonesian rice purchase from abroad this year after a two-year interruption.

Lam Anh Tuan, director of Thinh Phat Co Ltd which is a VFA member, confirmed the information with the Daily, saying Vietnam Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood 1) and Vinafood 2 have won the contract.

Unlike before, Indonesia did not invite tenders but directly negotiated with rice exporting firms before signing contracts.

Delivery in the new Indonesian rice contract will start from May and end in July. The price is not disclosed but Tuan said it is reasonable. However, a source told the Daily that it is around US$465.9 per ton.

The current local rice price is over US$410 a ton, so the Indonesia deal will help spur prices for future contracts. Before the signing of the contract, some rice importing countries declined to buy rice from Vietnam as they said Thailand offered lower prices, Tuan said.

Indonesia will buy the remaining 200,000 tons from Thailand at US$473.8 per ton.

Earlier this year Indonesia imported 141,000 tons of rice from Vietnam, 120,000 tons from Thailand, 65,000 tons from Pakistan and 20,000 tons from India. Later it bought 50,000 tons from Pakistan.

Thus, Indonesia has imported some 895,000 tons of rice including 441,000 tons from Vietnam.