Iraq war a risk for Vietnam rice exports
HANOI - Rising tensions between the United States and Saddam
Hussein are threatening to disrupt Vietnamese shipments of rice to
Iraq, the southeast Asian country's largest importer of the grain.
Iraq was the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice in 2002, buying
871,800 metric tons, or about 27 percent of Vietnam's total
exports of 3.23 million tons, according to a report published
Monday by the agricultural attaché's office at the U.S. Embassy in
Hanoi.
The new figure from the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service's office
in Hanoi indicates that about 70 percent of all Iraqi rice imports
last year came from Vietnam.
Iraq was the world's third-biggest rice importer last year, bringing
in 1.25 million tons of the grain.
"Last year, Iraq imported more rice than they needed, mainly to
build up stocks in anticipation of a new war," said Mamadou Ciss,
managing director of the rice trader Ascot Commodities NV in
Geneva.
"Iraq's imports this year could fall to 700,000 tons, depending on
what happens next in that area and when it happens," Ciss said.
The prospect of a U.S.-led war against Iraq has prompted
Vietnam to attempt to shift some of its rice exports to countries
such as Iran, the Saigon Times Daily reported last week.
Vietnamese rice exports to Iran last year totaled 14,540 tons.
The government and companies in Vietnam have already signed
export contracts for about 400,000 tons worth of rice to Iraq, Mai
Van Dau, the deputy trade minister, told the newspaper.
Insurance and transportation difficulties are already posing
obstacles to shipments to Iraq, according to the report.
The Iraqi government organizes and subsidizes the distribution of
rice in the country. Iraqi citizens each receive three kilograms of
rice monthly as part of their food entitlement, according to the UN
Oil-for-Food program in Baghdad.
A Vietnamese-Iraqi joint-venture received government approval
last year to build a $12 million rice-processing plant in the Mekong
Delta.
Vietnam and Iraq have diplomatic relations, and the Vietnamese
government opposes any U.S. attack on Iraq.
By Jason Folkmanis - Bloomberg News - February 03, 2003.
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