The Philippines and Vietnam are finalizing the inter-government agreement on rice trade cooperation that will last for five years.
The rice trade cooperation was among the topics discussed during the bilateral meeting of President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the sidelines of the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit held in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 7.
“With that, we can ensure our production and you can also ensure imports from Vietnam," Chinh assured Marcos.
Further details about the five-year rice trade cooperation have yet to be disclosed.
It can be recalled that in August, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez announced that Vietnam vowed to supply stable and affordable rice to the Philippines in preparation for the looming threat of El Niño.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) also earlier pronounced that Vietnam exporters said they could lower the price of rice for local traders from US $30 to US $3040.