The Vietnamese government has approved the export of additional 53,000 tons of rice under contracts signed before its Nov. 12 decision to temporarily halt exports for food security, the local newspaper Vietnam News reported Thursday.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has also permitted rice to be loaded on ships that docked at seaports before Nov. 12 pursuant to contracts with Cuba and Indonesia. Under the contracts, 116,000 tons of rice had already been shipped, according to the Vietnam Food Association.

Dung said the decision to partially lift the ban on rice exports reflected a flexible response to actual conditions, and it would help rice exporters to minimize their costs of storing rice in warehouses.

In the meantime, Dung allowed entrepreneurs to import rice from Cambodia without paying import tax to increase the rice supply and drive prices lower in southern region.

Dung also ordered the Ministry of Trade to continue coordinating with the Agriculture Ministry and the food association to closely monitor fluctuations in rice markets in order to develop a new appropriate export plan.

Vietnam is expected to export about 4.8 million tons of rice this year, or 200,000 tons below the government's initial target due to grasshopper infestation and disease outbreaks that affected rice crops, the newspaper said.

Vietnam shipped abroad 4.6 million tons of rice worth nearly 1. 3 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of this year, seeing respective year-on-year declines of 9.4 percent and 7.1 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua