Thai rice prices firm, Vietnamese prices fall

Thai rice prices firmed on demand from Iraq, but Vietnamese levels eased from highs as expensive quotes pushed buyers to the sidelines, exporters said on Wednesday. The price of 100 percent grade-B white rice rose slightly to $500 per tonne on Wednesday, up from last week's $495, exporters said. "Prices should stay firm for a few weeks due to loading demand for Iraqi shipments," a Bangkok-based trader said.
Iraq is one of the world's top 10 importers of rice which is purchased by the government to supply a huge food rationing programme held over from the Saddam Hussein era. Iraq, which consumes about 1.2 million tonnes annually, has bought 60,000 tonnes of Thai rice to bolster supplies, an Iraqi Grain Board spokesman said on April 14. However, demand elsewhere remained thin, with uncertainty hanging over Nigeria, Thailand's major buyer of parboiled rice, due to political unrest, traders said.
Nigeria passed through the final stage of election process on Tuesday with fiercely contested state governorship polls to be held from the southern oil delta to the Muslim north, where hundreds have been killed in unrest. Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, aimed to sell at least 9 million tonnes this year, up from 8.7 million tonnes in 2010, according to commerce ministry data. In Vietnam, the world's second-biggest exporter, rice prices eased due to thin buying demand as the major crop harvest has ended while the market awaits new deals, traders said.
"After a high rise in prices with no buyers, prices eased this week," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. "The harvest has ended and there is no more free paddy floating on the market but all is now in stocks." Export quotations for 5 percent broken rice dropped to $475-$480 a tonne, free-on-board, on Wednesday from $480-$485 last week. The 25 percent broken rice eased to $445 from $450.
Traders said slowing rice sales to China have also contributed to lower prices. Vietnam exported nearly 70,000 tonnes of rice to China in the first three months of this year, the agriculture ministry said in its official records, compared to no such purchases in the same period last year.
Loading for Chinese companies could total 135,000 tonnes in the second quarter, industry officials have said. However, traders said it was difficult to track the exact volume of Vietnamese rice sold to China as many cargoes went across the land border without proper papers.
Exporters were also keeping an eye on the May 2 tender in Manila for rice import rights of private firms, Vietnamese traders said. While the news has not moved the market here, new purchase and loading could help lift prices again, a trader said. The Philippines' National Food Authority (NFA) will hold a new tender on May 2 for private traders to bid for rights to import 205,152 tonnes of rice, the balance of this year's imports of the national staple.