Vietnam should have tighter regulations on licensing rice businesses and exporters as rice is a conditional business goods and related to the lives of around 30 million farmers, a firm  executive has suggested. 

Mr. Pham Thai Binh, general director of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho-based Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC (HNX: TAR), noted that the current regulations are lax, so some firms use their rice export licenses for other purposes, which harms Vietnamese rice’s quality and  value. 

He suggested some criteria for firms to be licensed for rice business and export, such as those related to (i) paddy farms with connection among businesses, cooperatives, and farmers, (ii) warehouses’ capacity, (iii) paddy drying plants’ capacity, and (iv) rice milling factories’  capacity. 

If firms cannot fulfill such requirements, they should be allowed for food business only, not export, he emphasized. 

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), up to 205 firms had received  licenses for rice business and export as of November 25. However, 39 of them have not  exported rice for two years, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed. 

The MoIT noted that rice export activities have now been different from those many years ago, so the government’s Decree 107/2018/ND-CP are outdated. The ministry proposed adding the criteria of warehouses and processing plants’ capacity into the requirement list, aiming to  maintaining the national rice brand. This year, Vietnam is estimated to export 6.2 million-6.5 million tons of rice, forecast the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).