Hanoi, Sept 23 - Vietnam's largest rice exporter, Vinafood 2, will stockpile 500,000 tonnes of milled rice over the next four months to stabilise domestic paddy prices, the government said, in addition to an industry buying plan.
The latest purchase would raise Vietnam's total summer-autumn rice stockpile by 50 percent, to nearly 1.5 million tonnes of milled rice.
Ho Chi Minh City-based Vinafood 2 should complete the purchase within two months by Nov. 20, and the rice should be kept in stock until Jan. 20, 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said in a directive seen on Wednesday.
Separately, members of the Vietnam Food Association have been buying a total of 500,000 tonnes of summer-autumn rice under a stockpiling scheme begun last month that aims to amass a stock of nearly 1 million tonnes of milled rice. [ID:nHAN384873]
A Vinafood 2 official told Reuters the firm would get interest-free loans for the stockpiling, unlike other companies that have no state support while joining the food association's scheme.
Once completed, Vinafood 2's purchase will leave no commercial rice from the summer-autumn crop in farmers' hands, given a total output of around 2 million tonnes available for sales.
Rice exporters have also bought and exported 900,000 tonnes of summer-autumn rice outside the association's scheme, the food association has said.
Paddy prices have been steady in the past two weeks in the Mekong Delta food basket, at 3,400-4,100 dong (19-23 U.S. cents) per kg, thanks to the association's stockpiling scheme.
The Vinafood 2 official did not say where the rice could be exported but main buyers include the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. ($1=17,833 dong)