The winter-spring crop will yield between February and April

Traders in Vietnam have been running out of stock ahead of the winter-spring crop planting season, which starts next month and produces yields between February and April.

During the first 10 months of this year, they exported almost 10% more rice than last year.

Running out of rice

Vietnam's rice shortage is partly due to a reduction in Vietnam's rice planting area after serious floods last year interrupted the autumn crop.

Total rice production for the year is predicted to fall to 31.9 million tonnes from last year's 32.5 million tonnes.

At the same time, total exports for the year are expected to rise 6.4% to 3.7 million tonnes.

The freeze on new contracts to export rice will retain more of the staple crop as food for the Vietnamese people.

This should help curb price rises at home.

Cheap rice internationally

Paradoxically, while rice prices have risen in Vietnam, they have fallen internationally.

Despite the near 10% rise in exports during the first 10 months of the year, the value of the exports fell 6.1%.

The low international prices has eased delivery fears among Vietnam's rice traders, who have signed contracts to export more rice than they have in stock.

The export freeze had no impact on the market, said one rice trader.

No deals have been struck, anyway, since the beginning of November because of the high prices, he added.

"Offers of Vietnamese rice have been $20 higher than Thai rice, so nobody wanted to buy from Vietnam," he said.

Traders who have to deliver rice to other countries to honour contracts they signed earlier this year have begun buying rice in third countries rather than shipping Vietnamese rice.

Vietnam's state-run Southern Food recently bought 10,000 tonnes of rice in Thailand and shipped it straight to its customers in Russia, the trader said.