Vietnamese rice prices firm

Rice loading for Indonesia and the Philippines has kept prices in Vietnam at high levels, despite a government ban of new deals remaining in place, traders said.
The ban imposed in July, when Hanoi feared a domestic shortage could affect food security, remains in effect at the end of the key summer-autumn crop harvesting in the Mekong delta food basket. "Exports would be halted until year-end so there won't be any new contracts and only government deals are executed," a state trader said on Wednesday.
Loading 25-percent broken rice for the Philippines and the 15-percent broken variety for Indonesia has been the main market activity in the world's second-largest rice-exporting nation.
Of the eight vessels loading a combined 104,500 tonnes this week at Saigon Port, five are bound for the Philippines and one for Indonesia. Last week, 13 vessels left the port with more than 150,000 tonnes, 69,000 tonnes of which were headed for the two Asian buyers.
Vessels also left for Russia, Cuba, Africa and Papua New Guinea. "Prices stay at high levels as exporters are buying while the harvest has ended and farmers are not selling all their grain thanks to higher prices," a trader with a foreign company in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Fresh paddy prices have been unchanged so far this month at between 3,150 dong and 3,250 dong (19-20 US cents) per kg in A Giang, the delta's main growing province, from between 3,100 and 3,200-dong late last month.
Prices this month are 32 percent higher than a year ago. Indicative offers for the 5-percent broken rice eased to $312-$315 a tonne of Wednesday, free on board at Saigon Port, from $315-$317 a week ago.
Three trading firms offered Thai rice for delivery this month and next month at between $343 and $343.25 for a tonne of the 25 percent broken grade, including cost and freight, Manila said, without giving the Vietnamese bids.
Traders said Vietnamese exporters might be able to sell only 12,000 tonnes to the Philippines under the tender. As the delta's harvest comes to an end, farmers would soon start planting a third minor crop, the output of which could lead to a government decision to remove the export ban, the Ho Chi Minh City trader said. But the state trader said the government would not allow any contract signing between now and year-end.