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Soon after this year’s great Australian supermarket stampede began in March, Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued an SOS to his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Rice was among the staples emptying fastest from supermarket shelves, the drought had already impacted local growers, and Morrison wanted to be sure Vietnamese rice would be available to bolster dwindling supplies, both here and for our Pacific neighbours.
In a phone call to Phuc in early April, he sought an assurance that Australia’s access would not be threatened by the blanket slowdown Vietnam was placing on its own exports of the grain. It was an assurance, it’s understood, Phuc was willing to give.