Vietnamese rice exporters will delay for an indefinite period an industry plan to buy 1 million tonnes of milled summer-autumn paddy for a three-month stockpile due to high prices, state-run newspapers cited industry officials as saying on Wednesday.
They had planned to buy the grain on domestic markets between July 15 and August 30 to prevent price drops to below 5,000 dong (24.4 US cents) per kg, a typical move to support prices as thhe Mekong Delta harvest peaks But the summer-autumn grain, used to produce 15 percent broken and 25 percent broken varieties and mostly sold to Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines, rose to 5,600-6,500 dong per kg this week, from 5,400-6,200 dong last week. Prices are rising thanks to demand from Africa, Bangladesh and potential purchase by Indonesia, as buyers switched to seeking Vietnamese grain after Thai rice prices had increased due to political reasons, traders said.