Farmers stop selling rice reserves due to low profits

With current rice prices, farmers' profits are very low and cannot reach the 30% profit target as set by the Government.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said that after nearly a week of implementing temporary purchasing and storage, businesses in the Mekong Delta have purchased about 20% of the assigned quantity at a price of 4,500 - 5,400 VND/kg (depending on the type), 100 - 250 VND/kg higher than before the program was implemented.

However, people in the Mekong Delta have stopped selling and instead are storing rice. The reason for this phenomenon is the announcement by the Ministry of Finance that the production cost of winter-spring rice in the Mekong Delta is about 3,134 - 4,474 VND/kg. In Dong Thap, the production cost of rice is 4,200 VND/kg. Thus, with the current price of rice, farmers make very low profits and cannot reach the 30% profit level as the Government's policy.

Mr. Duong Nghia Quoc - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Thap province said that people have to suffer because they sell rice at low prices, the profit is small, it is difficult to compensate for the next crops. In Kien Giang, the average purchase price of enterprises at the warehouse is 4,568 VND/kg of rice and 6,693 VND/kg of rice. In fact, this is the price that traders and vendors sell to businesses, while farmers sell rice to traders at only about 4,200 VND/kg (fresh rice) for the IR50404 variety.

According to Mr. Tran Quang Củi, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang, with this price, farmers cannot make a profit of 30%. If farmers want to make a profit of 30%, the price of rice purchased at the field for farmers must be 4,700 VND/kg.

Faced with the situation that the temporary purchase price is not much higher than the cost price, the People's Committee of Dong Thap province has just issued a document requesting the Prime Minister to direct the synchronous implementation of solutions to stabilize the consumption price of commercial rice, ensuring the rights of farmers.

The document clearly states that it is necessary to regulate the floor price for purchasing rice for temporary storage, ensuring that farmers have a profit of at least 30%; at the same time, priority should be given to allocating temporary storage purchase quotas in provinces with large rice output such as Kien Giang, Dong Thap, and Long An. Previously, the People's Committee of Kien Giang province issued a decision on the floor price for purchasing winter-spring rice at 4,500 VND/kg, lower than in 2012 at 703 VND/kg./.

According to (VOV) - LC