Vietnam not very keen on rice cartel

18:00' 02/05/2008 (GMT+7)
“Vietnam is not very keen on this idea. This is not the first time the idea has been proposed by Thailand,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade about a statement by Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej that Vietnam had agreed to join a rice exporters’ cartel.
According to CNN, Samak told press in Bangkok Wednesday that Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar had agreed in principle to form an Organization of Rice Exporting Countries, which would attempt to fix the price of rice on the international market.
However, a Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade told VietNamNet that Vietnam, the world’s second largest rice exporter after Thailand, has not yet made any official reaction to the initiative and a delegation from Thailand is coming to Vietnam to discuss it.
“The issue is really sensitive, so we are still carefully considering all aspects of it,” the official said.
The Thai announcement led to concern on the part of rice importing countries, many of them poor, who face the prospect of rice shortages and hunger due to the 80 percent rise in rice prices since the start of the year.
Rising rice prices are part of an overall increase in world food prices which UN’s World Food Programme recently called a tsunami that could drive many of the world’s poorest people to the brink of starvation.
Laos Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalansy said Friday the Laotian government would "seriously consider" the idea of creating a cartel to gain "bargaining power," AP reported.
According to AP, Cambodia, which in the past has championed the rice cartel idea, also welcomed the latest proposal and said it was a "necessity" given the current global food crisis.
In early April, the Indian government announced a ban on exports of low-grade rice, which is essentially produced for domestic consumption, in an effort to control a surge in local food prices amid tightening supplies.
Vietnam and Cambodia, other major rice producers, also have placed restrictions on rice exports.
Meanwhile, Thailand recently decided to release more than two million tons of rice to the domestic market in order to maintain the price of rice in the country.