An interdisciplinary inspection team led by the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been established to work with agencies to determine how much rice is stuck at ports so that the ministry can come up with an appropriate rice export plan.

Rice loaded for export (Photo: VNA)

The inspection team is led by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, and the team’s deputy head is Director of the Import and Export Department Phan Van Chinh.

The team includes leaders of the Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department and the Department of Crop Production (the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural development), the General Department of Customs (the Ministry of Finance), the Department of Economic Security (the Ministry of Public Security), and the Vietnam Food Association.

The team will work with customs authorities and a number of agencies to determine the actual amount of rice volume at ports. It will then write a report on the rice export situation in April and recommend measures to regulate rice exports in May. This will be submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The team’s working time is expected to be from April 20 to April 24 and will dissolve upon completion of the task.

The establishment of the inspection team came after chaotic developments occurred when the General Department of Customs began accepting online customs declarations from rice exporters on April 12 after the Government approved the resumption of rice exports but capped them at around 400,000 tonnes for April.

Many rice exporters were left disappointed since the quota of 400,000 tonnes was reached within only three hours. And many firms with rice consignments stuck at ports were unable to submit declarations.

In recent days, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has received many documents from rice exporters saying that the opening of the e-customs declaration software system has not been transparent since many firms have not received prior notice.

Some said that they could not access the system due to system error. In addition, some companies said that they had successfully submitted declaration forms, but the forms then disappeared on the e-customs system.