VIETNAM

Rice Deal Made With Los Angeles Firm: American Rice, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Erly Industries, has formed a joint venture with the Vietnamese ministry of agriculture to upgrade and operate a rice-processing plant south of Ho Chi Minh City that will have a production capacity of about 300,000 tons a year. The arrangement is part of a rice production and distribution contract under which American Rice has already shipped about 60,000 tons to markets in the United States, the Middle East and Brazil, said Gerald D. Murphy, Erly’s chairman and president. Rice is Vietnam’s second-biggest export, behind oil, and the country--which had to import rice until 1989--is now the world’s third-largest exporter, after Thailand and the United States.