For subscribers
Spoiling rice in Vietnam ports shows perils of food protectionism
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Women pack rice in bags to contribute to poor people at an automatic rice dispensing machine in Hanoi on April 16, 2020.
PHOTO: REUTERS
CAN THO (BLOOMBERG) - The owner of one of Vietnam's biggest rice exporters, Nguyen Quang Hoa, can only watch as 500 containers of sticky rice stranded in a port container yard for a month slowly degrades.
He's furloughed 400 factory workers, but his losses keep growing. If he doesn't ship the 12,500 tons of rice soon, he's worried his Chinese clients will reject it, and his company will be forced to default on US$13 million (S$18.5 million) in bank loans.
