Vietnamese rice exporters increase price by $10 a ton

Vietnamese rice exporters have increased their minimum prices by US$10 per ton following a decision from the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) on Monday (March 21).

With this, the floor price of 25 per cent broken rice has gone up from US$460 to $470 while 5 per cent broken rise has risen from $480 to $490.

This was the seventh rice price adjustment by the VFA this year, including three reductions in the last six weeks.

In March alone, it cut the floor price twice - from $520 to $500 and from $490 to $480 for the two varieties on the 9th and to $480 and $460 last week.

Earlier, in February, the VFA told its members to buy 2 million tons of paddy or 1 million tons of rice for the reserves between March and mid-April.

Pham Quang Dieu, chief economist for market research company AgroMonitor, also blamed the fall in paddy prices in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta to a cut in imports by the Philippines.

The Philippines is seeking to bring imports down to 860,000 tons this year from 2.5 million tons in 2010 amid forecasts of a bigger harvest, Bloomberg quoted National Food Authority Administrator Angelito Banayo as saying.

The Authority will buy 200,000 tons and private traders the remaining 660,000 tons.

Viet Nam exported over 1 million tons of rice for $523 million in the first two months of the year, 41 per cent and 28 per cent up in terms of volume and value year on year, the VFA said.

(Source: http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=18076)