Vietnam rice prices steadily rising

MANILA, Philippines—The price of rice from Vietnam, a rice exporting country, continues to inch upwards but Philippine officials said this would not likely to affect the country’s buffer supply.

With the price of rice from Vietnam reaching $450 per ton this week from $440 in early March, National FoodAuthority (NFA) Administrator Angelito Banayo said he does not expect the additional cost to affect the deals of private rice traders who have pledged to bring in about 440,000 metric tons of rice.

“Some of them are prepositioned with their suppliers in Vietnam and Thailand. I am confident that they will be able to bring it in,” Banayo said in an interview.

He said the increase in the price of rice was due to “speculation in the international market” and that he expected the price to go down next month.

“The price of rice is not permanent. They are negotiating it right now,” Banayo said.

The NFA put the country’s imported rice requirement for 2011 at 860,000 metric tons. The government bought 200,000 metric tons from Vietnam last March, while the rest of the quota was given to the private sector.

Of the auctioned quota of 660,000 MT rice, 438,022 MT has been awarded to 42 companies, the NFA said.

(Source: http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20110426-333017/Vietnam-rice-prices-steadily-rising)