Vietnam to sell rice to RI

Vietnam to sell rice to RI

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam will sell Indonesia 265,000 tons of rice in the next two months in order to help meet shortages, a former Indonesian food minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

The Saigon Newsreader, a daily news digest published in Ho Chi Minh City, quoted former minister Bustanil Arifin as saying Indonesia had planned to import 900,000 tons of rice from Vietnam but Vietnamese firms did not have a surplus that large.

The 265,000 tons would be of medium quality 25 percent broken rice sold at US$200 to $220 per ton CIF, the newspaper said.

It said Arifin, whom it described as an adviser to Food Minister Ibrahim Hasan and managing director of a private company, was speaking during a buying mission in Ho Chi Minh City.

The first shipment would leave very soon and the last would arrive in Indonesia by November, it added. Suppliers would be the state firm Vinafood Two, the Nation Food Security Reserve and some Mekong Delta provinces.