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Indonesia seeks 300,000 tonnes rice from Vietnam
Indonesia is looking to import 300,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam for delivery in March and April 2011, after signing deals to buy 250,000 tonnes from Vietnam for loading by January, traders said on Friday. Indonesia's new demand and loading for the 250,000 tonnes should help keep Asian prices high as stocks are thin during the period between crops in Vietnam, while Thailand, the world's top exporter, has been hit by the worst floods in decades.
Indonesia has contracted to buy 200,000 tonnes of 15 percent broken rice and 50,000 tonnes of 5 percent broken variety, a Vietnamese trader at a foreign company in Ho Chi Minh City said. He said the deal was signed with Vietnam after Indonesia failed to conclude a contract with Thailand due to the rise in the baht, which has pushed up Thai export prices.
Indonesia was also asking Vietnam to supply another 600,000 tonnes for delivery in the third quarter ending next September, but Vietnam was not willing to sign any big deals before it harvests its main winter-spring crop in early 2011, he said. Indonesia's demand for 300,000 tonnes next year is part of the country's effort to beef up stocks at state procurement agency Bulog despite an expected increase in local rice output, Bulog's president director said on Monday.
Exporters in Vietnam said their stocks were thin and they would slow down sales to wait for prices to go higher before making any more deals. "Exporters are holding back sales, as domestic prices have been rising and export prices could also rise, given the demand outside," another trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. The city is Vietnam's largest grain trading market.
Offers for Vietnam's 5 percent broken rice have risen to $485 a tonne, free on board, from $475 earlier this week. The Philippines, the world's largest rice buyer, planned to approach Vietnam in December to discuss rice supply for 2011, traders said. The Philippines was expected to buy most of its rice imports next year from Vietnam, a US Department of Agriculture attache in the Philippines said in a report on Wednesday.
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