Vietnam rice export ban to limit trade until February

Rice trade in Vietnam, the world's second-largest exporter after Thailand, is expected to remain slow until February due to a government ban on new export deals to ensure sufficient food supply, traders said.
"Aside from government contracts, the market is very quiet for private exporters as the ban is still in place and likely to be extended until the end of January," a trader in commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City said on Wednesday.
The government banned the signing of new export deals in October to protect national food supplies after storms damaged crops in the northern and central regions.
"We only expect business to really pick up from February," the trader added. Other traders said the only contracts approved are those, which meet price requirements, set by the Vietnam Food Association, the industry watchdog.
This week's export offers on 5 percent broken rice were flat at $260 a tonne, free-on-board Saigon Port, a far cry from the association's regulated prices of $273 a tonne on the same terms.
The 25 percent broken grade was also static at $240 a tonne, compared to $257 a tonne set by the food association.
The government said on Tuesday that Vietnam would harvest 35.79 million tonnes of paddy this year, down 1 percent from 2004 as some areas have been switched to other crops.
But higher rice demand in the region has prompted Vietnam to export a record 5.2 million tonne this year.
Vietnam grows three rice crops a year. Most of the grain from its winter-spring crop, the highest-yielding and best-quality crop, is exported.
The Agriculture Ministry has projected next year's paddy output at 36-37 million tonnes, of which 4-4.5 million tonnes of husked rice would be exported.
Traders said unseasonable rain in the Mekong Delta region rice basket would delay the harvest of the top winter-spring crop by around two weeks.
On Wednesday, two vessels were loading 31,500 tonnes of rice for Cuba and Malaysia while four others have completed loading 29,200 tonnes for the Philippines and Malaysia at Saigon Port.