India's rice export prices unchanged

Rice export prices in India were unchanged this week, after declining for three weeks in a row, as activity was muted ahead of the new crop, while waning output due to floods pushed up rates in Vietnam. Rates for top exporter India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety were unchanged from last week at $365-$370 per tonne.
"Right now, demand is weak," said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. "Traders are waiting for new crop supplies before signing deals." Supplies from summer-sown crops will become available for export from November, dealers said. Production of summer-sown rice is estimated to grow 1.8 percent to 99.24 million tonnes, government data showed last month. India's rice exports between April and August fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier to 5.03 million tonnes as leading buyer and neighbour Bangladesh trimmed purchases due to a bumper local harvest.
The rain-fed rice output or Aman crop in Bangladesh is estimated to hit 14 million tonnes from 13.5 million tonnes the previous year, helped by favourable weather, Mohammad Mohsin, director general of Department of Agriculture Extension, told Reuters. Aman crop, the second biggest rice crop after the summer variety Boro, makes up about 38 percent of Bangladesh's total rice production of around 35 million tonnes. The south Asian country, which emerged as a major importer in 2017 after floods damaged its crops, imposed 28 percent duty to support its farmers after local production revived this year.
In Vietnam, rates for the 5 percent broken rice climbed to $405-$410 a tonne from $400-$405 a week earlier. "I think prices will rise further as supplies are running low," a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader said, adding the mini autumn-winter harvest is coming to an end with output lower than the same crop last year due to flooding.
Floods from a burst dam in Laos inundated thousands of hectares of paddy fields in Vietnam's rice-growing Mekong Delta region. "I don't know how much more prices could rise, but we definitively cannot offer lower prices as there's not much grain out there," the trader said.
In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice was quoted at $405-$407 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, versus $398-$400 last week. Traders attributed the price rise to the strengthening of the baht, saying there was no fresh demand for Thai rice overseas. Thai exporters are expecting a possible deal with markets such as the Philippines and Indonesia before the end of the year, traders said.