Vietnam seeks to calm rice-buying binge
Vietnam moved to quell panic over rice supplies on Monday, banning speculation in the market after a “chaotic” buying binge at the weekend highlighted growing global fears about food security.
Queues and empty shelves were still evident on Monday as the world’s second-biggest rice exporter joined other nations in feeling the impact of a nearly threefold rise in rice prices this year, a rally triggered by exports curbs by top suppliers — including Vietnam itself, which has banned exports through June.
The growing sense of crisis over soaring food costs and supplies caused riots in Africa and toppled Haiti’s government. Although Asia consumes over 80 percent of the world’s rice, the impact has been limited as countries like China, India and Japan are self-sufficient.
The frantic pace of price increases in Thailand, the world’s largest rice exporter, looks set to cool in the weeks ahead, a Thai rice exporter said, with improved supplies.
“The market is likely to correct up to 20 percent even if the bans by India and Vietnam remain,” Korbsook Iamsuri, the secretary general of the Thai Rice Exporters’ Association told Reuters on Monday.
“Crop arrivals are much better than what it was three weeks ago,” she said, as Thai prices remained above the historic $1,000 per tonne level reached a week ago.
Over the weekend, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest urban area of about eight million people, people rushed to supermarkets and street markets in scenes described as “chaotic” by some local media reports.
Concern mounted in the southern city many still call Saigon after a popular supermarket chain, Saigon Co-op Mart, said it was selling only 10 kg of rice for each purchase 500 fast cash. That came less than a week after U.S. giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sam’s Club warehouse division put limits on purchases of rice.