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PRECIOUS COMMODITY: Shoppers stocking up on rice at a local store in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday. -- PHOTO: AFP
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HO CHI MINH CITY - VIETNAM moved to quell panic over rice supplies yesterday, banning speculation in the market after a 'chaotic' buying binge at the weekend highlighted growing global fears about food security.
Queues and empty shelves were still evident yesterday as the world's second-largest rice exporter joined other countries in feeling the impact of a nearly threefold rise in rice prices this year, a rally triggered by exports curbs by top suppliers - including Vietnam itself, which has banned exports through June.
At the weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest urban area of about eight million people, residents rushed to supermarkets and street markets to buy rice in scenes described as 'chaotic' by some local media reports.
Yesterday, there were queues at supermarkets, and people loaded up on bags of rice, although it was also a sale day for food and other produce to mark the April 30 Liberation Day holiday.
The authorities are trying to reduce hoarding.
A supermarket worker filling bags of rice said: 'We do not want people to buy a lot at the same time.'
At the Ba Chieu market in the city centre on Sunday, some rice stalls were empty, and people were seen loading bags of rice of up to 10kg onto motorcycles as vendors raised prices on the spot.
The Vietnamese government, facing the challenge of double-
digit inflation as it makes the transition to a market economy, blamed hoarding and speculation for the weekend buying spree.
It ordered the local authorities to regulate markets and ban non-food traders from trading in the grain.
'Our food output in 2008 is fully able to ensure sufficient supplies for domestic consumption and also to set aside part for exports,' it said in a statement yesterday.
Vietnamese rice mills, food supply companies, coffee and pepper trading houses and even stockmarket investors have bought rice to hoard to make profits, said Mr Truong Thanh Phong, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association.
The government statement said it 'strictly forbids organisations, and individuals without function to trade food, from buying padi and rice for speculation'.
Food companies and farmers have more than 1.3 million tonnes of rice in stock, the government said. It said it has also been buying rice to boost national reserves.
As of Friday, the price of padi in Vietnam had risen 25 per cent since the end of last month and 85 per cent since last April to 5,500 dong (47 Singapore cents) per kilogram.
REUTERS
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