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Monday, 6 August 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
BANGKOK (Reuters): Orders from Africa and Iraq helped support Thai rice prices last week, and prices may stay at their current levels for several months due to the extension of the government’s intervention program, traders said.
The benchmark 100 percent B grade white rice was offered steady at $580 per ton, and the 5 percent broken grade was also unchanged at $570 per ton.
“Loading demand for Iraq orders has helped support prices although overall demand remains very thin,” a Bangkok-based trader said.
Thailand was awarded part of a deal for 80,000 tons in an Iraqi tender in late July for prompt shipment.
Traders said additional demand for parboiled rice from traditional African buyers helped support rice price in general.
The prices of 100 percent parboiled rice rose to $570 per ton from previous week’s $565.
“The demand for parboiled rice from Africa was not that big and it could subside as most buyers are well stocked,” said another trader.
The government has extended its rice intervention policy, which ended in June, until the end of September and is then likely to renew the scheme immediately to absorb supply from the main crop, normally harvested from October.
In Vietnam, rice prices were barely changed amid weak demand, but exporters hoped that severe drought in the United States would support prices in the coming weeks.
The price of 5 percent broken rice narrowed to $407-$410 a ton, free on board Saigon Port, from previous week’s $405-$410.
The 25 percent broken grain was offered at $375-$380 a ton, versus $375-$395.
“Buying demand is thin now, so exporters are looking at news on the U.S. corn crop being affected to see if there is any damage on rice,” a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Vietnam’s rice exports between January and July eased 2 percent from the same period last year to an estimated 4.62 million tons as the Philippines and Indonesia, often big buyers, cut purchases, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Vietnam had signed contracts to export more than 6 million tons of rice this year as at the end of July, up 20 percent from a year before, the Finance Ministry’s Vietnam Financial Times newspaper said, citing Vietnam Food Association data.
