The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) said Vietnam's 5% broken grain was quoted at US$308 a tonne, free-on-board (fob) Saigon Port, last week, or US$5 higher than the time the country announced halting new rice export contracts.
"Vietnam has halted new rice export contracts as local exporters have already inked to ship 4.5 million tonnes of rice for this year, a volume equivalent to the year's target," a VFA official told the Daily yesterday.
The increasing export prices are also beefed up by Thai exporters' determination to maintain the selling prices of their 5% broken grain at US$335-336 a tonne despite the baht appreciation against the US dollar.
The high demand for rice from Asia and Africa will continue to push export prices up. Last week, Iraq announced to hold a tender for rice supply but did not specify its volume. VF A said Iraq bought some one million tonnes of rice every year from major suppliers including Thailand and Vietnam.
Indonesia has plans to import more rice from Vietnam under a government- to -government agreement, in addition to the contracts the two countries have signed so far this year.