Hanoi approves rice deal for Indonesia

Hanoi approves rice deal for Indonesia

HANOI (Reuters): Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has approved the
sale by Vietnam of 100,000 metric tons of rice to Indonesia on
deferred payment in addition to providing a free shipment of
10,000 tonnes, an official said yesterday.

The official from the Government Office said Khai had signed
an instruction authorizing the state-owned Southern Food Company
to make the 100,000 ton deal with Jakarta.

Last Friday a separate official said Hanoi intended to help
Indonesia with the rice deal because of Jakarta's previous
support for Vietnam during food shortages here in the 1980s.

That official had said shipment would likely be between August
and October with payment deferred for up to one year without
interest if necessary.

The Government Office official on Tuesday confirmed that
Indonesia would receive 10,000 tons of rice as aid from Vietnam,
one the world's top exporters of the staple.
He gave no more details.

Economic crisis has wracked Indonesia in the past year and put
the country's food supply under pressure.

Besides Hanoi, trade sources said on Monday that South Korea's
LG International Corp planned to sell 100,000 tons of Vietnamese
rice to Indonesia for shipment between August and October this
year.

Officials from LG International, a unit of the LG Group said
the group planned to sell rice to Indonesia but declined to give
further details.

Vietnam exported more than 1.3 million tons of rice to
Indonesia in the first five months of the year, according to a
recent report by the U.S. embassy in Hanoi.

The country's overall rice exports reached 2.73 million tons
in the first half of the year. Vietnam has set an export target
of four million tons for the whole year.