Vietnamese firms have recently won a bid to sell 28,078 tons of rice to Japan, according to a local trade agency Tuesday.

Local companies have so far this year inked contracts on supplying a total of 84,078 tons of rice to Japan, up from 79,024 tons in the whole 2005, said the Trade Information Department under the Trade Ministry.

The Vietnamese government has recently decided to export 5 million tons of rice at most this year, a move to ensure the country's food security.

Vietnam sold overseas 580,000 tons of rice valued at 158 million U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, posting respective year-on-year rises of 2.9 percent and 3.8 percent.

The country, which shipped abroad more than 5.2 million tons of rice worth nearly 1.4 billion dollars in 2005, has set targets of producing 38-39 million tons of paddy rice in 2006.

Source: Xinhua