Asia rice: India rates climb to six-week peak

BENGALURU, MUMBAI, BANGKOK, HANOI, BANGLADESH: India’s rice export prices rose to their highest level since mid-June this week, while Thailand’s prices were little changed. Top exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $543-$551 per ton this week up from the last week’s $540-$547.

Indian exports have slowed down sharply since the export tax eroded its price advantage over rival suppliers, said Himanshu Agarwal, executive director at Satyam Balajee, a leading rice exporter. India is likely to cut the floor price for basmati rice exports and replace the 20% export tax on parboiled rice with a fixed duty on overseas shipments, government sources said last month, as rice inventories in the country jumped to a record high.

Thailand’s 5% broken rice was quoted at $570 to $575 per ton on Thursday, the same range as last week. There may be some slight price fluctuations after Indonesia announced an auction, a Bangkok-based trader said. There were no problems with supply due to good water resources, he added.

Another trader said that the quality of Vietnamese rice was improving and its prices were competitive. “We have to wait for the next few months to see if India will continue its ban on exports. For supply, there are no problems now,” the trader said. Vietnam’s 5% broken rice was offered at $560 per ton on Thursday, compared with the $550-$560 range a week ago, traders said.

“Supplies are not high at the moment, but the quality of rice is quite good, so prices rose slightly,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader. Vietnam exported 630,000 metric tons of rice in July, down 4.4% from the same month a year earlier, government data showed. For the January-July period, the country exported 5.2 million tons of rice, up 25% from the previous year.

Rice export revenue over the seven-month period rose 25% to $3.27 billion. Meanwhile, domestic rice prices in Bangladesh have stayed elevated despite an increased supply this week, which was previously hampered by a lack of vehicles following student protests and curfews.