Vietnamese rice prices eased this week on thin buying demand but remained higher than prices in Thailand, keeping the market at a standstill, traders said on Wednesday. "Buyers are away for holidays and they have requested deliveries to avoid this period," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. Vietnam's 5-percent broken rice dipped to $370-$372 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) at Saigon Port, from $375-$378 a tonne last week, while Thai rice of the same grade stood at $345-$355/tonne, FOB basis.
"Vietnam's domestic market prices are lower, but the export prices are still higher, so Vietnam can't compete with Thailand," the trader said. Thailand and Vietnam are the world's second- and third-biggest rice exporters after India, with combined shipments making up nearly 40 percent of global rice trade in 2015, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Traders were awaiting more details from the Philippines, which plans to import 300,000-400,000 tonnes of rice in the second quarter of 2016.
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