Russia has re-opened its Far East port in Vladivostok to rice imports, a move that would help cut shipping costs for Vietnamese exporters delivering to European buyers, trade officials said on Friday.
Nakhodka port, one of Russia's few border checkpoints permissible for rice imports, resumed imports last Friday, three days after Vietnam-Russia trade talks closed in Moscow, the Vietnamese trade representative in Russia said in a report.
At the meeting officials resolved that Vietnam, the newest member of the World Trade Organisation since January, supports Russia's bid to join the global trade club. They also discussed measures to boost Vietnam's exports of rice, shrimps and fish to Russia.
Vietnam is one of the main rice suppliers to Russia along with Thailand, China and India but a trade barrier and higher shipping costs have reduced Vietnamese shipments. Last December, Russia stopped all rice imports on health grounds but later restarted them under stricter controls via a reduced number of ports.
Only 60,000 tonnes of Vietnamese rice went to Russia in 2006, from a peak of 100,000 tonnes in previous years, Vietnamese rice industry officials said. In 2007 higher freight during the first half cut Vietnam's rice shipment to Russia by 67 percent, despite Russia easing its stance on imports, the Agriculture Ministry said.
But experts expected rice exports to Russia would pick up after Russia banned the import of Thai rice in May when it found a shipment from Bangkok infected with an unnamed dangerous pest, similar to a ban slapped on Pakistani rice in March.
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