In an official dispatch released by the Government Office, the Deputy PM asked Mekong delta provinces, the two food corporations and the Vietnam Food Association to speed up the hand over of rice to importers in September and October and to negotiate new contracts benefiting farmers.

The State Bank of Vietnam will instruct commercial banks to consider preferential interest rates to help businesses buy commercial rice from farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will encourage farmers to plant high-quality rice strains while adjusting food production programmes to come up with an appropriate rice export strategy.

The Ministry of Information and Communications will instruct media agencies to provide accurate information to support rice exports.

Over the past few days, rice prices in the Mekong River Delta region have risen from VND3,200-3,500 per kilo to VND4,500-4,800 per kilo for normal varieties and as high as VND5,200-6,000 per kilo for top quality rice.