Asia Rice-India rates slide to multi-year lows as supply mounts

* Vietnam's winter-spring crop quality seen falling- trader
* Domestic prices in Bangladesh ease this week
* India's Oct rice exports fell 42% y-o-y: govt data
* Thai traders struggle with low demand, strong baht

By Diptendu Lahiri
BENGALURU, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Prices of rice in top exporter
India slid to a three-year low this week as demand waned on
ample supply from the recent summer harvest, while demand from
Philippines picked up for the Vietnamese variety.
Rates for India's 5% broken parboiled variety RI-INBKN5-P1
were quoted around $356-$361 per tonne this week, the lowest
since January 2017 and down from last week's $358-$362.
"The supplies from new crop are rising, but demand is not
picking up," said an exporter based at Kakinada in the Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh.
India's rice exports in October fell 42% year-on-year to
485,898 tonnes, government data showed on Thursday, due to weak
demand from African countries for non-basmati varieties.
In Vietnam, rates for 5% broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 were
quoted at $345 a tonne on Thursday, compared with a range of
$345-$350 a week earlier.
"Demand from the Philippines has been picking up, with more
orders coming in," a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader said, adding
that exporters, meanwhile, are focusing on fulfilling orders
signed earlier with clients from Iraq and Cuba.
Farmers in the country's largest rice growing area, the
Mekong Delta, are preparing land for the key winter-spring crop,
but traders fear the rice quality of the crop might not be as
high as before.
"The lack of floods over the recent years in the Mekong
Delta has left the land less fertile," the trader said.
In Bangladesh, domestic prices of rice have fallen slightly
this week after the government vowed stern action against the
manipulators and considered a cut of import duties on the
staple.
Prices had rebounded in the past few weeks, despite good
crops and ample stocks, which the food minister attributed to
price manipulation by some traders.
Bangladesh raised import duty to 55% from 28% in May, in an
effort to support farmers amid protests over a steep fall in
domestic prices. Export prices for Thai variety were little changed this week
on subdued demand and as new supply gradually enters the market.
"Prices have not changed much this week because of the lack
of demand," a Bangkok-based trader said.
Thailand's benchmark 5% broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 prices
narrowed to $397-$410 a tonne on Thursday from $394 - $410 the
week before.
Traders said they continue to struggle to sell rice as a
strong baht kept prices for Thai varieties higher than
competitors.