US rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell the maximum daily trading limit for the second straight day on Wednesday, following the weakness in Asian cash markets, traders said. The front three months closed down the $1.15 trading limit, with July at $18.45 per hundredweight.
There were 30 unfilled orders, a combination of July and September contracts, to sell the market limit down at the closing bell. Price limits will remain at the expanding level of $1.15 for Thursday after two or more contracts settled limit down.
Rice prices have eased from their record highs set in late April on signs that global rice supplies will improve and expectations that Vietnam would lift export curbs from July to follow Cambodia, which decided on Monday to lift a two-month rice export ban.
Rice output from Vietnam's largest crop is expected to rise nearly 6 percent this year, helping to bring closer a decision to lift a ban on exports. Expectations of a looming supply increase helped drive Thailand's benchmark 100 percent B grade white rice down more than 10 percent to $900-$930 per tonne, off last week's near record high $1,030-$1,050 last week. USDA cut its weekly world market price for long grain rice to $18.19 per cwt, down 82 cents from the week before.