Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed lower on Friday in a shortened session after the US Thanksgiving holiday, pressured by a disappointing export pace, traders said.
The market closed at noon CST after being closed on Thursday for the holiday, reopening for the night session. January rice settled 2 cents lower at $9.87 per hundredweight but held above its 100-day moving average of $9.82. The back months closed 3 to 5 cents weaker. Clayton was the featured speculative seller, likely representing a commodity fund, traders said.
Commercial pricing by Man Financial underpinned prices. But volume was thin, the lightest of the week, traders said. The US Agriculture Department said on Friday that 36,100 tonnes of US rice were sold for export last week 61 percent under the four-week average.
"That's not going to cut it," said one rice broker referring to the disappointing export pace. This year's exports lag a year ago by 28 percent. Buyers are hesitant to book sales given the high price and concerns about tainted supplies after the discovery of an unapproved biotech rice variety in US long grain stocks last summer.
In fresh export news, South Korea issued a tender to buy 29,069 tonnes of US medium-grain brown rice on November 30. Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, said on Thursday it would hold a tender to sell 200,000 tonnes of fragrant and 200,000 tonnes of white rice from government stocks next week.
Additionally, Cuba hopes to reduce its record imports in the coming years due to increased rice production, its state-run Radio Reloj reported on Thursday. Cuba sources most of it rice's from Vietnam followed by the United States.