Grave food shortage in North Vietnam

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 17

Grave food shortage in North Vietnam

SAIGON. The gravity of the food shortage hitting North Vietnam is being gauged in Saigon by measures being taken to ease it.

One of the most surprising moves is a Government recommendation that the more productive members of agricultural cooperatives — who are entitled to a larger food ration — should take only the basic ration of food and accept cash to make up the difference. This is to ensure that all agricultural workers, especially the less productive ones, are adequately, fed.

Strenuous efforts have been ordered to block off the avenues through which food is whisked out of official channels and into the black market.

It seems that a lot of food is being lost in transit, from storehouses, and in processing factories and workers’ and students’ canteens. From

these sources hundreds of tons of grain are spirited aw’ay each year, most of it ending up in illegal distilleries w'hich are making big ! profits. ! There has also been a ! heavy clamp dowm on private enterprise. As part of the drive to eliminate the free market, traders have been forbidden to buy or sell rice, corn, wheat, or any products derived from them. RESTAURANTS CLOSED - Private restaurants and 5 (the simpler types of eating 1 (places in Hanoi are either T being closed or placed under ’State control. . [ One result of the anti-free ‘(market campaign is that rice ‘has disappeared altogether j ;!from private sale, hitting! [many people who have been; ‘(supplementing their monthly! ’■rice ration by buying extra! ion the free market. ■ The severe restrictions on! iprivate food sales are beingj accompanied by a move toj !curtail the free market ini i employment. I The Hanoi Municipal Council has publicly stipulated J the right of every citizen to . . have a job. and also his duty [(not to make his living (illegally. Any able-bodied (citizen who refuses to accept lithe job allocated to him, or .'her, will be liable to undergo ( forced labour for between .•six months and two years. j The council has demanded! the collectivisation of labour! in both handicrafts and service enterprises, apparentlyincluding the familiar bicycle servicing stations which are [found all over Hanoi. The official explanations [ (given for this drastic restric- ( lion of personal freedom are!;

that it is designed to make society cleaner and ideologically wealthier by combatting evils such as the theft of public property, illegal practices in industry, and corruption in the Administration.

The Vice-Minister for Food and Foodstuffs (Trinh Xuan Tien) has said that the continued existence of the free market is the direct cause of the official failure to organise the distribution and marketing of food. His argument was that in conditions of relative scarcity the parallel existence of a State distribution and a free market gives rise to unstable prices which reduce the purchasing power and undermine the already low living (standards. —Copyright: World Feature Services, Ltd.