Nguyen Thanh Tho, a rice trader at Ba Dac wholesale food market in Tien Giang Province, told the Daily on March 20 that enterprises were buying a kilo of unprocessed IR 50404 rice at VND4.500-4.600 per kilo in the delta, down VND200 against a half month ago and VND400 from the record high in end-February.

At Ba Dac wholesale food market, IR 50404 material rice is quoted at VND6,600-6,700 per kilo, down VND300 versus two weeks ago and VND500 over the record high last month.

Rice prices have dipped sharply due to falling shipments to China and the fulfillment of government-to-government (G2G) rice export contracts with the Philippines, said Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of Van Loi Co. in Tien Giang Province. Meanwhile, there is little sign that local exporters could secure new deals.

Another source told the Daily that there is a high possibility that the Philippines would import 250,000 tonnes of rice under G2G contracts from Vietnam and Thailand in March. “But no move has been made, thus pushing down domestic rice prices.”

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) cited international media as saying that Vietnam’s rice exports had reached one million tonnes by March 7, down 4.31 percent year-on-year, ranking third after India with two million tonnes and Thailand with 1.5 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, VFA statistics showed its member enterprises had shipped nearly 674,000 tonnes of rice by February 28 with a total free-on-board (FOB) value of $286 million.