The offering price of rice exports has dropped by US$10 per ton within the last four days due to a shortage of large contracts, according to rice traders.

Specifically, the offering price of 5% broken rice was US$430-440 per ton on Monday, which is US$115 lower than rice of the same grade of Thailand. Meanwhile, India’s 5% broken rice is offered at around US$425-435 a ton.

The price of Vietnam’s 25% broken rice has also fallen by US$10 per ton from Friday to US$400-410 per ton compared to US$530-540 of Thailand.

According to rice supplier Lien Hiep in Tien Giang Province, the price of grade-one rice material is VND7,500 per kilo while that of rice of lower grades was VND7,200-7,300. The material rice price has declined by VND500 per kilogram from two weeks ago although the rice quality is really high.

Le Truong Son, general director of rice exporter Docimexco in Dong Thap Province, said that the price decline resulted from the small number of contracts, with exporters mainly making shipments to Indonesia and Malaysia. The Chinese market, Vietnam’s biggest rice importer, is also quiet.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, exporting firms delivered 381,000 tons of rice worth US$177 million from November 1-22. Besides, Vietnam’s total rice export until November 22 was 6.8 million tons with a FOB value of US$3.05 billion.

The Saigon Times Daily