Agriculture

Coping With High Food Prices: Appropriate Country Responses

March 30, 2011 (Vietnamica) — The topic of this session is currently critical: how should a country position itself to face high global food prices? The basic issue is whether the country will be “open” or “closed” to the world market for grains that exhibit these high prices. The issue is especially critical for rice importers and exporters because of the thinness of the world rice market and subsequent sharp volatility in rice prices. The issue is not whether the country is “integrated” with the world market in some statistical sense, based on time series econometric tests of price...

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Data: Vietnam Rice Export, 1890-1941 and 1989-2010

Data: Vietnam Rice Export, 1890-1941 and 1989-2010

© Vietnamica.net | March 28, 2011 — We compiled a table of rice export statistics of Vietnam in the past.

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Vietnamese Farmers Facing a Twin Blow of Land Price Bubble and Cash Influx (Update 1)

A rice field in Bac Giang Province © 2009 Vuong Quan Hoang

© Vietnamica.net | March 26, 2011 – In recent years, land prices have skyrocketed in Vietnam both in metropolitan areas and rural. The urbanizing process takes place in even remote lands, usually starting with some road construction, then an industrial or export processing zone, and the like. Short-run benefits could be seen through pecuniary rights farmers may get as compensation for their leaving off of the farm lands. After some time, paddy fields were all replaced by eco-tourism parks, golf courses, and villas. Overwhelming compensation package (compared to their rent or harvest payoff) and the influx of cash from...

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Vietnamese Worried of Widening Trade Deficit with China

© Vietnamica.net | March 25, 2011 — Much of China’s reserve comes from its trade surplus with the rest of the world. Vietnam – a China’s neighboring country which shares a 1,450 km land border (MONRE Mar 23 2010) – has been an increasingly important importer of capital and consumer goods from China.

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State’s Rightful Intervention or Hangover of Centrally Planned Modality?

© Vietnamica.net | Mar. 25, 2011 — Although the global Food Price Index has been on the rise in recent months, Vietnamese farmers that are growing rice in the southern Mekong River Delta are unhappy since their rice price has been decreasing due to low exports.

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Rising Pressures on Vietnam’s Rice Exports as Thai Farming Changes

© Vietnamica.net | March 24, 2011 — According to a Thai government official (un-named) in charge of rice production strategy, Thailand would encourage farmers to grow rice twice a year instead of three harvests. As the world’s long-standing largest rice exporter now Thailand shifts to higher quality production. This new strategy may take effect from October 2011. While pursuing this plan, rice exports from Thailand may be reduced by 2 million metric tons per year, with a clear determination of increasing quality proportion in the country’s export. Thai rice prices remain the benchmark for rice exports from Asian countries,...

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