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.