India rice rates dip as demand slows, Vietnam prices flat
- Asian rice exporting hubs saw tepid activity this week, with prices for the staple from top exporter India dipping on lower demand, while Bangladesh mulled a review of its ban on exports of the grain.
- India’s 5% broken parboiled variety, RI-INBKN5-P1, was quoted around $377-$380 per tonne, down from last week’s $387-$390.
- Aggressive selling of old inventories by China at lower prices was also weighing on prices, he added.
- The country’s rice exports for April-February dropped 9.4% from a year earlier to 10.57 million tonnes, as leading buyer Bangladesh trimmed its purchases due to a bumper local harvest.
- Bangladesh, traditionally the world’s fourth biggest rice producer, banned overseas shipments of some common rice varieties in May 2008 following a spike in domestic prices. It banned all rice exports a year later. In 2017, the country was forced to massively increase imports to shore up domestic reserves after floods wrought havoc on local crops and pushed domestic rice prices to record highs, but domestic stocks have since greatly improved.
- In Thailand, the world’s second-largest exporter, the benchmark 5% broken rice, RI-THBKN5-P1, prices eased slightly to $393-$411 a tonne, free-on-board Bangkok, from $405-$410 last week.
