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Vietnam rice speculators hurting poor { April 28 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/28/business/AS-FIN-Vietnam-Rice.phphttp://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/28/business/AS-FIN-Vietnam-Rice.php
Vietnam warns speculators face punishment after hoarding sends rice prices rocketing
The Associated Press
Published: April 28, 2008
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam: Vietnam's prime minister has warned rice speculators they face severe punishment after rocketing prices led to panic buying over the weekend.
The remarks are a sign of the unease felt across Asia as governments struggle to keep the price of the staple food affordable after rice prices have soared this year.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung insisted supplies in Vietnam — the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand — were "completely adequate" for domestic consumption, state media quoted him as saying late Sunday. He warned that any organizations and individuals speculating in the commodity would be "severely punished."
But crowds of people flocked to rice markets Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city, to stock up on the grain, which has more than doubled over the last two weeks, traders and media reports said Monday.
"I have been in this business 33 years and I have never seen anything like it," said Huyuh Kim Hoa, a trader at the city's Tran Chanh Chieu rice market. The top quality rice at the market was selling for US$1.25 per kilogram, traders said.
On Monday, prices remained high at the market but there were few buyers, with traders saying the prime minister's remarks had likely calmed fears.
State media called the weekend buying "rice fever" and told readers that the country had enough rice.
"Don't panic," read the headline in the Phapluat daily.
Nguyen Thi Nguyet, secretary general of the Vietnam Food Association, said real estate companies and pepper and cashew nut exporters had rushed to buy rice in recent days to sell later for profit. She also said wholesalers in the southern Mekong Delta, the country's main rice growing region, were holding back supplies.
"The unnecessary tensions in the domestic rice markets in recent days stemmed from many factors such as rumors, groundless information (and) particularly the hoarding and holding back of rice to wait for the prices to go even higher," she said in the Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Price rises in Vietnam have been partly driven by strong demand from neighboring countries seeking to boost stocks for food security.
Last month, the government said it would cut rice exports by 1 million tons this year to shield the country from the affects of global rises in food prices caused by soaring demand in China and India and poor harvests worldwide.
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