Asian rice prices firm

Rice prices in Thailand and Vietnam, the worlds biggest and the second-largest exporters, remained firm this week despite thin demand, supported by government measures, exporters and traders said on Wednesday. Thai rice was mostly unchanged, with the benchmark 100 percent B grade white rice staying at $600 per tonne even though recent buyers had now pulled back.
"Demand for Thai parboiled rice in Africa, which helped support prices for months, has subsided as they have bought a lot of rice in the past few months," one exporter said. But Thai prices are expected to remain strong over the next few months as the government plans to bring in another intervention scheme after the previous programme expired on February 28, traders and officials said.
The new scheme is expected to be agreed by the cabinet and implemented next week, a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce said. The government is likely to choose a price from a range running from 10,000 to 13,000 baht ($275 to $360) per tonne, suggested by various parties including farmers and millers.
That would peg export prices at between $570 and $640 per tonne, which exporters say is too high and uncompetitive. Vietnams 5 percent broken grade white rice was set at $460 per tonne, well below the same Thai grade which was quoted at $570 on Wednesday. Busy loading activity in Hanoi helped support Vietnamese rice prices, but there is no fresh demand as the government has halted new contracts, traders said. Winter-spring paddy prices rose to 4,300-4,600 dong (25-27 US cents) per kg this week in the Mekong Delta rice basket, where the harvest is picking up, from 4,200-4,400 dong last week, traders said.
Vietnams rice loading in the first week of March was more than double that of a month earlier at 77,700 tonnes, for destinations including the Philippines, Malaysia, Cuba and Africa, industry data showed. Vietnam plans to load a record 800,000 tonnes of rice this month, the government has said. The previous record was just last month, when Vietnam shipped 650,000 tonnes. A floor on export prices and the Vietnam Food Associations export curb have made it difficult for exporters to boost sales, traders said.
A state trader said one buyer was bidding $435 to $440 for a tonne of 5 percent broken rice but his company could not sell because the floor set by the association was $460 per tonne. "The floor is there so we cant do anything with new bids," said a Vietnamese exporter.