BENGALURU /MUMBAI/BANGKOK/HANOII/BANGLADESH: Vietnam rice export prices slid to their lowest levels in a year this week, while Indian rice export prices edged higher on a small improvement in demand, although ample supplies and increased sowing limited the gains.
Vietnam’s 5% broken rice was offered at $550-$560 per ton on Thursday, down from a range of $565-$570 a week ago, traders said. “Trading activity is moderate as rains are hampering an ongoing harvest in the Mekong Delta,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader.
The trader said prices, however, might pick up over the next week as exporters are expecting Indonesia’s state procurement agency Bulog to begin buying 320,000 tons of rice from early next month. The ongoing harvest in the Mekong Delta is expected to end next month, traders said.
Top exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $540-$547 per ton this week, up from the last week’s $537-$543, at a four-week high.
“African buyers are slowly coming back to the market because of a drop in freight rates,” said an exporter based in Kakinada, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
India is likely to cut the floor price for basmati rice exports and replace the 20% export tax on parboiled rice with a fixed duty on overseas shipments, government sources said, as rice inventories in the country jumped a record high.
Thailand’s 5% broken rice was quoted at range of $570 to $580 per ton on Thursday, slightly up from the range of $570-575 last week, due to changes in the exchange rate and steady demand.
Markets were quiet with news that there will be orders from Indonesia, said a Bangkok-based trader. Exchange rates contributed to the price increase and markets were waiting for the second crop, said another trader. In Bangladesh, rice supply, which was hampered in recent days due to lack of vehicles following student protests and a subsequent curfew, is easing now that the curfew has been relaxed.
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