Asia rice: Indian rates ease, soaring inflation feeds into Vietnam prices

Bangkok/Hanoi/Mumbai/Dhaka: Prices of rice exported from India dipped this week as supplies increased, while soaring inflation in Asia seeped into Vietnamese prices despite muted trading activity.

Top exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $364 to $368 per tonne, down from last week’s $365-$369, on a weak rupee and higher supplies after the extension of the government’s plan of providing free food grains to poor people.

Supplies are rising from milling of the new season crop and the government releasing last year’s harvest, said an exporter based at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

While India is likely to receive normal monsoon rains this year, tea, rubber and rice growing regions in northeast India and southern parts of the peninsula could receive below normal rainfall, the India Meteorological Department said.

Meanwhile, flash foods in early April damaged rice crops on around 6,500 hectares of land in neighbouring Bangladesh, according to preliminary data from the agriculture ministry.

Bangladesh, traditionally the world’s third biggest rice producer with around 35 million tonnes of annual output, expects to produce 20 million tonnes of summer rice variety this season. Vietnam’s 5% broken rice were offered at $420-$425 per tonne, versus $400-$415 last week.

“Prices rose due to the general inflation situation in the world, especially food prices,” a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. “Farmers have to pay more for fertilisers and pesticides.” However, trading activity remains quiet, and the winter-spring harvest in the Mekong should be completed by month-end.

Spiralling prices for ingredients and material that started with supply chain snags during the COVID-19 pandemic and now being propped up by the war in Ukraine, are squeezing businesses and consumers in Asia.

Thailand’s 5% broken rice prices were unchanged at $408-$412 a tonne, as the market was closed for Songkran, the traditional New Year holiday.