The Ministry of Industry and Trade is tasked with coordinating with relevant agencies, localities and rice exporters to review the supply, exports and reserves of the food.
It will have to report to the PM by March 28 for consideration of adjustments to rice-exporting activities.
PM Phuc also tasked the ministry, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Ministry of Finance, with ensuring rice supply for the people amid climate change and the COVID-19 outbreak.
On March 18, PM Phuc presided over a meeting during which he stressed that food security must be ensured in a very firm way under any circumstance.
Rice is the main food for the Vietnamese people, and also the country’s major hard currency earner.
Vietnam is currently the third largest rice exporter in the world, after India and Thailand. In 2019, the country exported 6.37 million tonnes of rice with total revenue of US$2.81 billion.
A report of the MARD showed that Vietnam earned US$410 million from exporting 895,000 tonnes of rice in the first two months of 2020, up 32.6% in value and 27% in volume compared to the same period last year.
