 | PH Private Firms start rice imports |
September 30, 2016Philippine private companies have started small volume buying of rice from Vietnam even if they do not have import quotas, Reuters reported from Hanoi. There is a government plan to allow more private traders to import rice. A trader at a European firm in Ho Chi Minh City also reported that Filipino buyers are turning to Pakistan or Myanmar where rice is cheaper. “ Pakistan offers its 5-percent broken rice at $325 a ton, FOB basis. Meanwhile, buying and prospects of higher supplies pulled down rice export prices in India and Thailand this week, while Vietnamese prices hovered at a one-year low on weak demand, traders said. Harvesting of the main crop in Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter after India, might peak next month with the output contributing to more than 80 percent of the country’s total production. “October will be the period when new stocks arrive so prices will continue to drop,” said a trader in Bangkok, who expects prices to drop further between $5 and $10 per ton. Thailand’s benchmark 5-percent broken rice eased to $365-$370 a ton on Wednesday, free-on-board (FOB) basis, from $370 a week ago. Wednesday’s prices are at par with those in late Prices of India’s 5-percent broken parboiled rice eased to $368-$378 per ton this week, from the wider range of $370-$380 two weeks ago, due to weak exports, though a stronger Indian rupee limited the downside. “Due to the appreciating rupee, we should have raised prices but couldn’t due to the weak demand,” said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “Expecting a bumper India’s summer-sown rice output is seen at a record 93.88 million tons in the crop year Exports of India’s non-basmati rice in April-June, the first quarter of its fiscal year, rose 2.3 percent from a year ago to 1.74 million In Vietnam, the world’s third-largest rice exporter, the 5 percent broken grain prices fell to $330-$340 a ton, FOB basis, from $335-$345 last week, and the 25-percent broken rice also eased to $310-$315 a ton, both at their lowest since Sept. 2015, based on Reuters data. Vietnam’s rice exports this year are expected to drop 13.8 percent from 2015 to 5.7 million tons following |
