Rough rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed mostly lower in quiet trade on Wednesday, led by lower Asian cash prices, traders said. July rice ended unchanged at $20.30 per cwt, with September down 11 cents at $19.69 and November down 10 at $19.75.
Funds continued rolling long July positions forward while locals were noted buyers of July, traders said. Volume was estimated at 1,098 CBOT rice futures and nine options. Thai benchmark rice prices fell 3 percent in the week to Wednesday, as rival exporter Vietnam won a major government order from the Philippines, showing it has plenty of supply before it restarts private sales next month.
The Philippines bought 600,000 tonnes of Vietnam rice at an average price of $940 per tonne cost and freight in a government-to-government deal, which would secure the country's rice requirement for 2008, its agriculture minister said.
Vietnam lifted its ban on the signing of rice export deals, but will only allow contracts for a limited quantity as it caps exports in the first nine months of this year at 3.5 million tonnes.
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