FLOODS: THAI RICE PRODUCTION DROPS 20 PER CENT
By Jamaluddin Muhammad - Friday, November 12
BANGKOK, Nov 11 (Bernama) -– While Thailand''s rice production for this year is expected to drop by 20 per cent due to the current flood woes, it gave an assurance it will not cause shortage for domestic consumption or export.
Thai Farmers Association president Prasit Boonchoey said today the country was expected to produce about eight million tonnes of rice this year, as compared to 10 million tones annually.
"It will not cause shortage for domestic consumption or export as the country has a considerable rice stockpile," he said.
Malaysia is one of the rice importers from this country.
The floods that hit 42 out of 77 provinces in this country has badly affected padi fields nationwide.
Some 28 provinces are currently still inundated.
The price of padi is 9,000 Baht (about RM900) per tonne currently and it may rise to as much as 10,000 Baht (about RM1,000) per tonne as the natural disaster has also hit other producing countries including Vietnam, India and Pakistan, said Prasit.
Vietnam Rice Price Could Reach $500/Tons
The benchmark price of Vietnamese rice is likely to be stable between $380 and $500 a tonne next year barring unforeseen natural disasters or poor weather, one of the country's top 10 exporters said on Wednesday.
The past three years have witnessed some of the most volatile commodities prices ever, rice included. Vietnamese rice soared to around $1,000 a tonne in May 2008 before slipping to around $350 a tonne in April this year.
Tran Thanh Van, deputy chief executive of the Mekong Delta-based exporter Gentraco Corp, estimated that major buyers had prepared 30 percent to 50 percent of their annual domestic demand, which would remove some of the urgency that exacerbated price movements in recent years.
"Major price movements will no longer be expected in the coming time because of these preparations," Van told Reuters in the river town of Thot Not, one of the Mekong Delta's main logistics points for rice transportation.
The Mekong Delta produces more than half of Vietnam's paddy rice output, expected to reach 39.1 million tonnes this year from 38.9 million tonnes in 2009. Grain from the delta's 12 provinces accounts for 90 percent of the country's total rice export.
Van said benchmark 5 percent broken rice stood at $475 a tonne, while 25 percent broken rice was $445 a tonne, and Gentraco was looking to raise the quotations by $10 a tonne, given low stocks.
The last time the 5-percent broken rice traded at $500 a tonne was during the first week of January 2010.
Vietnam carried over 1.4 million tonnes of milled rice from the previous harvest, but had already begun depleted it, and Van said the country's current stocks were about 1.1 million tonnes.
Gentraco was now holding 30,000 tonnes of rice in stock, or around 10 percent of its annual export target for 2010, Van said. Last year the company shipped 250,000 tonnes of rice.
Stocks are likely to continue to wane despite a minor harvest starting within the next three weeks.
Supply will pick up from late February when Mekong Delta farmers start harvesting the winter-spring rice crop, the country's largest crop mostly used for export.
Paddy output of the crop is expected to remain unchanged at around 10 million tonnes, as farmers stepped up using fertiliser to cope with the impact of low flooding this year, a leading rice industry researcher said on Tuesday.
The Vietnam Food Association, which is in charge of regulating the country's rice exports, has already stopped approving company-to-company contracts with shipment from November onwards.
The association has also tried to support prices by imposing an export price floor and then raising it in October.
Vietnam has secured deals for a record 6.8 million tonnes of rice so fare this year, 6.5 million tonnes of which would be shipped, which would be a record, industry officials said. The country exported 6 million tonnes of the grain last year.
Vietnam to Raise Rice Export Floor Price
HANOI, Oct. 11 (Reuters) — Vietnam will raise the export floor price for 25 percent broken rice to $445 a tonne from $435 from Tuesday, the Vietnam Food Association said, as supply tightens ahead of possible demand from the Philippines and Indonesia.
The new floor price will apply to deals with loading in October, the food association said in a statement on Monday, confirming a state media report at the weekend. The minimum price for 5 percent broken rice is unchanged at $475 a tonne.
The new floor is imposed on the variety often bought by the Philippines. A state-run newspaper said on Friday the Philippines and Indonesia were looking to buy up to 2.2 million tonnes of rice from Vietnam.
Vietnam has secured deals to export a record 6.8 million tonnes of rice so far this year.
It shipped 5.55 mln tonnes in the first nine months of this year and around 1 million tonnes should be shipped in the fourth quarter, giving a total of 6.5 million to 6.6 million tonnes by the end of the year, the food association estimated.
The remaining volume would be loaded in early 2011 along with any grain sold in deals with Indonesia or the Philippines.
Stocks in Vietnam are low, in part because supply from Cambodia has fallen to between 100,000 and 200,000 tonnes a year from 1 million tonnes in recent years, the association's chairman, Truong Thanh Phong, was quoted as saying in a weekend newspaper report.
To cope with the drop in stocks, the food association, which is in charge of regulating Vietnam's rice exports, has already stopped approving company-to-company export contracts with shipment from November onwards.
Vietnam's rice exports hit 5.4 million tonnes
Vietnam exported nearly 5.4 million tonnes of rice worth over US$2.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, representing respective increases of 8.51 per cent in volume and 12 per cent in value.
According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA),the average price of Vietnamese rice reached over US$422 per tonne, up US$16.43 per tonne compared with the same period of last year.
Between July 15 and September 15, businesses bought over 972,000 tonnes of rice, fulfilling 97.21 per cent of the target of having one million tonnes in reserve.
VFA plans to ship 1.2 million tonnes of rice in the fourth quarter of 2010, raising the total export rice volume in the year to 6.6 million tonnes.
Rice May Rally to $18 as U.S. Crop Is `in Trouble,' Firstgrain Forecasts
Rice futures may surge as much as 36 percent on concern that U.S. crop may be lower than earlier forecast, Milo Hamilton, president of rice market advisory service Firstgrain.com, said today.
The price of rough-rice futures may peak at $18 per 100 pounds on the Chicago Board of Trade, Hamilton said at a conference in Singapore today. The most-active contract gained 1.6 percent to $13.465 per 100 pounds at 12:37 p.m. Singapore time, extending a five-day winning streak to 10 percent.
“We’ve just begun to rally,” Hamilton said at a conference in Singapore. “What you have out there is a crop that’s in trouble,” he said, referring to the U.S. harvest.
Smaller output from the U.S. may limit supplies available to importers after recent flooding slashed harvests in Pakistan, the world’s third-largest shipper last year.
The Philippines, the world’s biggest importer, may buy between 500,000 tons to 600,000 tons in mid-December, said Tom Slayton, former publisher of Rice Trader, said in a video address to the same conference today. Indonesia may buy 850,000 tons in the 2010-2011 marketing year, he said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered on Oct. 8 its estimate of the U.S. crop to 7.567 million metric tons, from 7.975 million tons a month earlier, on reduced yields. The nation was forecast by the USDA to overtake Pakistan as the world’s third-largest shipper this year.
Thai rice exporters see 8.5 mln tonnes 2011 shipments
Published: 12 Oct 2010 19:32:06 PSTPHUKET, Thailand, Oct 13 - Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, could export at least 8.5 million tonnes of rice in 2011 as demand is expected to remain strong, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said on Wednesday.
"The 8.5 million tonnes target is a conservative forecast as we expect that demand should remain strong since key buyers will continue to import, such as the Philippines and Indonesia," Korbsook Iamsuree, president of the association, told Reuters.
She added: "In fact, we could sell more than 8.5 million next year if the baht is not too strong."
Thailand generally exports between 8.5 million and 9.5 million tonnes of rice a year, and that is the range expected this year. In 2009 it shipped 8.6 million tonnes.
Vietnam 2010 rice exports may hit record high
HANOI: Vietnam, the world’s second-largest rice exporter after Thailand, has secured contracts so far this year to ship a record high of 6.6 million tonnes of the grain, a state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday. The country is capable of exporting 7.2 million tonnes in 2010, including 5.8 million tonnes produced this year and 1.4 million in stock carried forward from 2009, the Rural Today newspaper said, quoting a Vietnam Food Association report. reuters
