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Hanoi: Vietnam will keep its ban on new rice export contracts through June to ensure domestic food security and tackle inflation, even though it has completed harvesting a bumper crop, state media reported on Saturday.
The ban in place since early this month would help "ensure food security and meet best with the state's interest", Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien said.
It would also help reduce the volume of rice on the export market, pushing up prices and raising export earnings over time, he said.
Early this month the government extended the ban to help stabilise domestic food prices as it tries to tame double-digit inflation. Prior to that, it had curtailed exports for March and April, while allowing shipments under deals signed earlier.
Vietnam's southern region, incorporating the Mekong Delta food basket, is expected to harvest 9.9 million tonnes of export-quality, winter-spring paddy this year, up 3.9 per cent from last year.
Bien said global prices would continue to rise until 2010.
"Vietnam has made a record with its rice offer price to the Philippines reaching $1,200 a tonne and rice prices are expected to rise to $1,500 per tonne next month," he said.
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