Hanoi, Aug 11 - Vietnamese rice exporters have started buying a combined 400,000 tonnes of summer-autumn rice to stem a fall in domestic prices at the peak of a harvest while export demand is slow, a state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Vietnam Food Association has asked members to start buying at a price of at least 3,800 dong (21.3 U.S. cents) per kg of paddy on Monday in the first phase of the stockpiling scheme, the Tin Tuc daily, run by the Vietnam News Agency, said.
The purchase of 400,000 tonnes of husked rice, or 800,000 tonnes of paddy, makes up 40 percent of the volume of grain still held by farmers while export demand is slowing.
Summer-autumn paddy prices have eased to 3,200-3,500 dong per kg this month in the Mekong Delta food basket, from 3,500-4,200 dong in late July.
The second phase of the stockpile would follow next month if the situation with export contracts did not improve, the report said.
Farmers in the southern region are likely to harvest 10 million tonnes of summer-autumn paddy this year, 7.75 million tonnes of which is coming from the Mekong Delta alone, similar to last year, officials have said.
Vietnam is expected to sell 700,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, by year-end, a government minister was quoted as saying last week, which could help put the country on track to achieve a record volume of up to 7 million tonnes.
Exporters have so far signed contracts to ship nearly 5.4 million tonnes of rice and an estimated 4.1 million tonnes had been shipped in the first seven months of this year, industry reports show.