Vietnam raises rice export floor prices

Reuters: Vietnam raised the export floor price for 5 percent broken rice by 13.7 percent on Friday to $540 a tonne, the Vietnam Food Association said.

It also increased the minimum export price for 25 percent broken rice to $480 a tonne, free-on-board basis, from $445 in place since Nov. 12, and said the new floors were applied for deals with shipment during December.

The food association did not give any further details.

The surprise price floor hikes come as Vietnam tries to contain inflation threatening to reach double digits for the whole of 2010 on the back of sharp increases in food and foodstuff prices, which have a major share in the country’s price basket.

“The new floors are in place to intercept new demand from Indonesia,” a Vietnamese trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.

Indonesia will import another 250,000 tonnes of rice to build up stocks at state procurement agency Bulog, Kompas newspaper reported on Friday.

Bulog bought 227,000 tonnes of Thai rice at a price of $570 tonnes, cost-insurance-freight basis, which was equivalent to $530 or $540 a tonne, free-on-board basis, the trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.

Earlier this week a grain trader in Indonesia said Bulog opened a tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of premium 5 percent broken Thai rice.

Along with the Philippines, Indonesia is one of the largest buyers of Vietnamese rice. Vinafood 2, Vietnam’s largest rice exporter, is assigned to handle demand from the Indonesian government.