Rice export prices in Vietnam were stable in the past week as exporters held back on buying to await for prices to ease on arrivals from the new harvest next month. Exporters offered the 5-percent broken rice at $302 to $305 a tonne, free-on-board to Saigon Port this week, unchanged from last week.
The 25-percent broken rice was quoted at $282 to $285 a tonne, free on board, also unchanged from last on Wednesday. Exports of rice in the first week of June totalled 106,000 tonnes, worth $29.73 million, taking the shipment so far this year to 1.89 million tonnes and export revenues to $545.4 million, the Vietnam Food Association said this week.
"No one is rushing to buy now as domestic prices are expected to ease when new supply from the summer-autumn crop harvest hits the market next month," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. This week a kilogram of paddy in the Mekong delta province of A Giang edged down to 3,000 dong ($0.18) from a range of 3,050-3,100 dong ($0.18-0.19) last week. But another trader said lower output from the crop could boost prices in July when the harvest peaks.
He said around 1.5 million tonnes of export quality grains would be harvested from the summer-autumn rice crop. The Agriculture Ministry forecast the crop would fall 3 percent to 6.4 million tonnes of paddy as the total area would fall 11 percent to 1.5 million hectares.
Vietnam's winter-spring crop harvest that provides the most 5-percent broken grain for exports ended in April, and the summer-autumn crop mainly produces lower quality varieties such as the 15-percent and 25-percent broken rice.