HANOI/BANGKOK/MUMBAI/DHAKA: Demand for Indian rice was robust this week as a weaker rupee made the staple more attractive than that from Thailand and Vietnam, while Bangladesh cut its import duty to cool surging domestic prices.

Bangladesh has cut the import duty on rice to 25% from 62.5%, with traders saying a huge volume will come from neighbouring India. Deadly floods have damaged large areas of crop and have caused domestic prices to spike, even though it is peak harvesting season for the country’s biggest rice crop.

While Bangladesh is the world’s third-biggest rice producer, it often requires imports to cope with shortages due to natural disasters such as cyclones and floods.

Top exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $355 to $360 per tonne, unchanged from last week. “Buyers have been giving preference to Indian rice because of lower prices. Demand is robust for 25% and 100% broken white rice,” said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Thailand’s 5% broken rice prices fell to $412-$415 per tonne from $420-$425 last week. “Demand is coming in, but not in large amounts. The market is quiet - India rice prices are lower than that of Thailand,” a Bangkok-based trader said.

While the farmers are expecting a good yield this year, they are under pressure from rising costs of fertilizer, the trader added. Vietnam’s 5% broken rice was offered at $415-$420 per tonne on Thursday, compared with $418-$423 a week ago.

“Domestic supplies are building up with more output from the ongoing harvest of the summer-autumn crop,” a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.

Data on Wednesday showed that Vietnam’s rice exports in January-June were estimated to have risen 16.2% from a year earlier to 3.5 million tonnes, with revenue from rice exports up 4.6%.