RPT-Asia Rice-Indian prices slide to seven-month low as demand stalls

(Repeats without change)
* Bangladesh plans to start exporting surplus rice
* Thai rice more expensive than Vietnamese and Indian
varieties

By Harshith Aranya
BENGALURU, May 16 (Reuters) - Rice export prices in top
exporter India slid this week to their lowest in nearly seven
months as demand continued to stagnate, while rates for
Vietnamese rice dipped on expected increase in stockpiles after
the summer harvest.
India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety RI-INBKN5-P1
was quoted around $362-$365 a tonne this week, down from last
week's $371-$374 for a sixth weekly decline as it also came
under pressure from depreciation in the rupee. INR=
"Demand has dried up in the West African market, as they are
sitting on high inventories," said Nitin Gupta, vice president
for Olam India's rice business.
Aggressive selling of old inventories by China to African
buyers is also weighing on prices, exporters said.
The rice-growing southern peninsula of India could receive
95% rainfall during the forthcoming monsoon, private weather
forecaster Skymet said. Meanwhile, neighbouring Bangladesh is planning to export
surplus rice to protect farmers' interests, food minister Sadhan
Chandra Majumdar said, amid growers' increasing frustration over
low rice prices.
Farmers say that 40kg of paddy is being sold at about 500
taka ($5.90) against an average production cost of 700 taka,
while the harvesting of the summer rice crop, known as Boro, is
in full swing.
In Vietnam, rates for 5 percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1
fell to $355 a tonne on Thursday, compared with $365 a week
earlier, on expectations that stockpiles will increase when the
early harvest of the summer-autumn crop begins late this month.
"Rice exports from Vietnam this year are forecast to stay
flat on last year but will gradually fall as the rice growing
area is shrinks to give way to growing fruit trees," a senior
official with the Vietnam Food Association told Reuters.
"Though Chinese importers have reopened the door to
Vietnamese rice, it's not yet easy for Vietnamese exporters to
boost their sales to China as several technical barriers are
still in place," the official added, referring to regulations on
quality management, packaging and origins.
Meanwhile, Thailand's benchmark 5-percent broken rice
RI-THBKN5-P1 prices were unchanged at $385-$400 a tonne free
on board (FOB) Bangkok.
But Thai traders said they were worried that Thai rice,
currently priced higher than Vietnamese and Indian rice, is also
losing competitiveness because the Thai baht THB=TH is the
strongest-performing currency in Asia this year.
The Thai Rice Exporters Association stood by its January
forecast for Thailand to export 9.5 million tonnes this year,
falling from last year's 11 million tonnes because of the strong
baht. Thailand's deputy commerce minister, Chutima
Bunyapraphasara, on Wednesday said the country had exported 3.2
million tonnes of rice in the first four months of the year.