Directive No. 17/1998/CT-TTg On the management of rice exports and ensuring food security in 1998

DIRECTIVE

On the management of rice exports and ensuring food security in 1998 

Since late 1997, the Government has issued mechanisms related to the management of rice exports and the guarantee of loan capital for purchasing paddy and rice for temporary storage and export, thus facilitating the circulation and consumption of paddy and rice in the first months of 1998. Rice exports have increased, household paddy has been purchased at maximum levels; prices of paddy and rice have risen, ensuring income benefits for farmers without causing negative impacts on the domestic food market supply-demand situation.

However, the management of rice exports over the past few months also needs to be more closely directed, inspected, and urged to prevent significant fluctuations in paddy and rice prices, and to ensure that monthly and quarterly rice export volumes are reasonably balanced with the capacity for milling, processing, transportation, loading, and other services related to rice exports, which are still limited.

Although the winter-spring crop of 1997-1998 in the Mekong Delta achieved good results, some northern provinces and central coastal provinces are facing severe difficulties due to drought and rat damage. Given the complex weather conditions that continue to affect subsequent crops, to ensure national food security, maintain favorable paddy and rice prices for farmers and the interests of rice exporting enterprises, and to address imbalances in rice export management amid increasing rice import demand, the Prime Minister instructs relevant ministries, sectors, and provincial people's committees to urgently implement the following tasks:

1. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall coordinate with provincial people's committees to reassess the harvest volume and the potential of commercial paddy from the winter-spring crop of 1997-1998; forecast the volume of commercial paddy from subsequent crops to work together with the Ministry of Trade and the Export Management Board for Rice and Importation of Fertilizers to effectively manage the 1998 rice export plan.

2. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and provincial and municipal people's committees must focus particularly on directing summer-autumn crop production, especially water management measures, drought prevention, dike reinforcement, embankment construction, and saltwater intrusion and flood prevention; regularly monitor weather developments, flood and storm risks, and prepare timely response plans and measures.

3. The Ministry of Trade, the Export Management Board for Rice and Importation of Fertilizers, and provincial and municipal people's committees must strictly direct and rigorously implement the following:

- Carefully review existing rice export contracts; apply measures to delay contract signing and execution, and strictly manage cargo delivery, including vessel scheduling at ports to ensure that rice exports in the second quarter of 1998 remain at 1.5 million tons, with no more than 600,000 tons in April 1998.

- Strictly check trade conditions and rice export prices for various types, avoiding exceeding allocated quotas and selling below the minimum price within the government-directed price range set by the Ministry of Trade and the Export Management Board for Rice and Importation of Fertilizers.

- Temporarily, starting from April 1, 1998, do not allocate additional export quotas to any entity; provincial people's committees must strictly implement the allocation of export quotas to key rice exporting enterprises within their province as stipulated in Decision No. 12/1998/QĐ-TTg dated January 23, 1998, and other Prime Minister directives, where export quotas are only assigned to designated exporters.

The Ministry of Trade shall review and report to the Prime Minister on the allocation of export quotas to provincial enterprises; cases violating government and ministry management principles will be considered for appropriate action in the future.

4. Based on the development of the food market in the second and third quarters of 1998, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall direct the Northern Food Corporation to proactively balance food supplies from south to north, including selling stored rice from the corporation's northern reserves.

The National Reserve Corporation, based on the targets set for 1998, shall direct branch offices to carry out grain exchanges in northern provinces and ensure necessary reserves for Hanoi; organize the purchase of reserve rice in southern central provinces, and refrain from implementing reserve rice purchases in Mekong Delta provinces.

The Prime Minister requests ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, and provincial and municipal people's committee chairmen, especially those in the Mekong Delta and the Export Management Board for Rice and Importation of Fertilizers, to take responsibility for strictly directing and implementing this Directive.