Wednesday, 09 July 2014 10:59

BANGKOK: Thai rice prices were unchanged at high levels due to tight supply as the military was still in the midst of a nationwide rice stocks inspection, traders said on Wednesday.

The offer price of common grade Thai 5 percent white rice was unchanged at $420 per tonne, the highest since March 7. "Prices stayed at relatively high levels although demand was not very strong," said a Bangkok-based trader. "But it was because domestic supply remained tight as the army still controlled the warehouses for the stocks inspection."

Thailand's military government launched an inspection of rice warehouses around the country last week to work out how much grain was stockpiled by the government it ousted in May and to check on the rice quality.

Panadda Diskul, head of the government's rice inspection committee, said the check-up would finish by the end of July, when traders expected more rice supply could be release from the government stocks and prices should ease. Rice export prices in Vietnam, however, dropped this week as demand from major buyer China subsided, traders said.

Vietnam's 5-percent broken rice dropped to $415-$420 a tonne, free-on-board Saigon Port, from $420-$430 a week ago.

Vietnamese 25-percent broken rice dipped to $365-$370 a tonne, from $370-$375 last Wednesday.

"Sales to China are slowing, with more vessels left idle instead of loading as in the past at My Thoi port," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said, referring to a port in the Mekong Delta food basket.

Sales to China, Vietnam's top buyer this year, could halve in the second half of the year from the 1.38 million tonnes exported in January-June, according to industry forecasts, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The drop in sales stemmed from concerns over the continuing dispute over the South China Sea, and Chinese customs officials tightening quality control of rice imported via land borders, traders said.

View original post here:
Asia Rice: Thai stock check holds prices at high levels despite thin demand