Thai rice prices picked up this week on loading demand and ahead of an expected deal with Iran, while thin buying demand pushed Vietnamese prices down slightly, traders said on Wednesday. Last week, rice prices in Vietnam, the world's third-biggest exporter of the grain after India and Thailand, slipped below those offered in Thailand for the first time in three months.
Thai 5-percent broken rice jumped to $365-$372 a tonne this week, free-on-board (FOB) Bangkok, from $355-$360 a week ago, while Vietnam's 5-percent broken rice narrowed to $350-$355 a tonne. Thai rice prices rose on Monday and have been stable since after several ships arrived for loading under previous deals, a trader in Bangkok said.
Thailand plans to export 9 million tonnes of rice this year, down 8 percent from 2015 due to damages by a drought, Thai Rice Exporters' Association honorary president Chookiat Opaswong said on Wednesday. The annual forecast included 4.9 million tonnes of white rice, a fall of 6.8 percent from last year, given competition from Vietnam's fresh winter-spring crop, Opaswong told reporters.
"Vietnam's winter-spring crop will see about 3.5 million tonnes that can be exported," he said. "That's worrisome. That makes Vietnam our main competitor." Thailand plans to sell 300,000 tonnes of rice to Iran and will send a delegation to the Middle East nation for negotiations next week, he added. Rice prices in Vietnam could drop further when harvesting peaks from late next month and in case Vietnam fails to secure any major deal with key buyers such as the Philippines and Indonesia, traders said.
The Philippines, one of the world's top rice importers, could delay its planned additional purchase of up to 400,000 tonnes of the staple food as local supply remains adequate, the state grains stockpiler said on Wednesday. "Buyers are waiting for prices to fall so they have yet to buy anything now," a Vietnamese trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. Harvesting of the winter-spring crop, Vietnam's biggest among its three crops a year, will peak from late February.