Vietnamese rice prices steadied this week on Chinese purchases, while export quotations for Thai rice dropped slightly on thin demand, traders said on Wednesday. The price for Vietnam's 5-percent broken rice was at $365-$370 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) Saigon Port, on Wednesday, steady near last week's levels, after climbing to $370-$372 a tonne on Monday.
"China has reopened the border for buying Vietnamese rice so it helped raise prices earlier this week," a trader at a European firm in Ho Chi Minh City said.
There is, however, no clarity on how much or for how long China will buy, traders said.
Vietnamese exporters buying paddy under a government-backed stockpiling plan have also helped to keep prices stable during a major crop harvest due to end this month, traders said. State purchases, aimed to set aside from trade 2 million tonnes of paddy, or 1 million tonnes of husked rice, are due to end on April 15. "But besides China, the market is quiet, so prices are not rising," another trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.
In Thailand, the world's largest exporter followed by India and Vietnam, the 5-percent broken rice eased to $395 a tonne, FOB basis, from $398 last Wednesday.
"There should have been buyers now as off-season rice has come to markets already but there aren't any," a Bangkok-based trader said, adding that Vietnamese and Pakistani rice were more competitive.
Thai baht, which edged up slightly against the dollar this week, may push Thai rice prices up, the trader said. The baht has risen 1.11 percent so far in 2015.
Thailand's huge stocks of around 17 million tonnes, however, continue to drag on domestic prices, traders said. Thai 5-percent broken rice's average price in the first quarter ended March dropped 6.2 percent from a year ago to $416 a tonne, while Vietnam's similar grade fell 6.8 percent to $364, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
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