NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): High rice price in Thailand and Vietnam due to government intervention and bad weather has likely to turn the buyers to India,world’s second largest producer, who has started exporting rice under Open General License(OGL) and offering rice at much cheaper value.
In September 2011, India Government had lifted the restrictions on export imposed since 2008, allowing exports of 2 million tons of non-basmati rice under OGL thanks to bumper harvest.
The Thai benchmark 100 percent B grade white rice hit $680 a ton, while Vietnam’s 5% broken rice rose to up to $590 a ton. The exporter in Thai are offering the rice at $550 at the lowest, whereas the the par-boiled rice is offered by India has priced at $440-$445 a ton.
The government intervention has caused the rice to be costly as the Thai government began to buy paddy from farmers from October onwards at 15,000 baht ($483) a ton, nearly double local prices in June. And also the flood in Thialand, which has been the worst in the half of Century, which had destroyed the framland and paddy.This has affected the many major deals made to supply rice.
"The country could source from Vietnam, India, Pakistan, or even Cambodia, if its proposed deal with Thailand for 300,000 tonnes of Thai rice agreed under the previous Thai administration was not renewed." said Mohammad Ismet, adviser with Indonesian state procurement agency Bulog, reported Daily Times.
Meanwhile, Philippines also plan to import rice as the country had suffered damages to 1 million tonnes of rice due to two recent strong typhoons.
In India, the production is expected to hit 102 million tons in 2011-12. India find more opportunities to export rice at the current position.
