Re: Rice export

[Tuan V Nguyen <t.nguyen@garvan.unsw.edu.au>]

Hello anh AiViet and folks,

	My family in Kien Giang said that the problem was due 
to price and admistrative bundle. The private sector offers 
a lower price than the governmental sector. However, the 
private sector has problem in exporting rice. When people 
try to sell their rice to governmental agencies, they have 
to go through a very cumbersome procedure (sound familiar?) 
and no one is prepared to do that. The result: u+' ddo^.ng 
ga.o. Co' ga.o o+? ddo' ma` kho^ng co' tie^`n! 

	Although VN is ranked as number 2 or 3 in terms of 
rice export, I think we have a long way to go to compete 
head-to-head with neighbour country like Thailand. Our 
problem is that our rice is not that of high quality. So 
far, we have mainly exported to Eastern bloc or poorer 
countries; we have not been able to penetrate lucrative 
market in Western countries in a great quantity, which 
Thailand has dominated the market for years. If you live in 
the Mekong Delta provinces you will see that those machines 
and factories for processing rice are primitive and 
outdated. Consequently, our processed rice is not clean 
enough, immature and low quality. To compete with Thai in 
this market, we must improve our quality and pricing 
system. 

	Tuan V Nguyen

At 06:07 PM 5/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Hi folks,
>
>  I heard that VN has problems with exporting rice from Mekong Delta.
>The Vnmese farmers are suffering with unsellable rice. The wedding gifts
>now are in rice as they don't have any money.
> 
>  It is ridiculous that the business men who are profit-orientedly 
>exporting rice have more impact than the non-profit Internet providers.
>It is not fair, but true.
>   What if VNSA opens a Rice Marketing campaign for VN?
>  
>Cheers
>Aiviet