Hanoi, May 6 - Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter, is considering imposing a duty on rice exports as it wants to save more of the grain for domestic consumption, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said on Tuesday.
However, Dung, speaking at the opening of the National Assembly, the country's top legislative body, reiterated a 2008 rice export quota of 3.5 million to 4 million tonnes.
"Rice export shipments will be delivered at suitable timing," Dung said, without giving any details on the export duty.
No export tariff is imposed on rice exports, which brought in $1.45 billion in revenue last year and nearly $800 million in the first four months of 2008, according to rice traders.
"If export duty is realised, then buyers would be forced to bear the cost under current market conditions, where demand is greater than supply," a Ho Chi Minh City trader said.
Vietnam has banned the signing of new rice contracts through June to ensure adequate domestic supplies and control inflation, which hit an annual 21.42 percent last month.