HCM CITY — To increase margins for rice farmers, it is necessary to eliminate some of the layers of middlemen in the distribution system, experts say.
Rice grown by the farmers currently passes through the hands of traders, processors, wholesalers/food companies, and retailers before reaching consumers.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan, former rector of the An Giang University, said more than 90 per cent of the rice was purchased from farmers by traders rather than food companies because the latter lack warehouses, human resources, and transport facilities to go to rural and remote areas for the purpose.
Rice exporters, including those under the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA), and wholesalers then buy the grain from traders.
Before it reaches the domestic consumer, the rice then passes through the hands of retailers, who buy from wholesalers. Costs and profits added to the original cost at each stage of this process mean the prices balloon to unreasonable levels. Thus, if some of these middlemen are taken out of the process, the farmers are likely to get a greater share of the profits.
Pham Van Du, deputy head of the Cultivation Department, said the current system should be reorganised and the VFA should oversee this task.
Le Van Banh, head of the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute, said it was important to strengthen co-operation among rice-growing regions and between the State, enterprises and farmers.
If it helps farmers sell directly to enterprises, they would benefit, he said.
The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta is the country’s rice granary but several provinces here do not have clearly zoned areas for growing high-quality rice for export.
The country exported 3.8 million tonnes of rice worth US$1.8 billion in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 25 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. —
Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn
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