Asian physical rice export prices were steady to lower Wednesday from Friday amid thin trade, with Thai offers being driven down slightly by a weaker baht, exporters said.
"The baht is weaker so Thai prices are coming down," one Bangkok-based exporter said.
Despite softer prices, buyers remained elusive as Thai prices are still high, exporters said.
Meanwhile, Thai suppliers are busy gathering supplies to fulfill outstanding contracts, they said.
"Demand in the local market is quite strong because we have a lot of outstanding contracts. This is why local prices haven't changed," a second exporter said.
Thai 100% grade B was offered slightly lower Wednesday at $338-$339/ton, FOB, Bangkok, and 5% broken at $325-$330/ton. Parboiled 100% sortexed was offered unchanged at $333-$342/ton.
In Vietnam, prices were unchanged Wednesday on firm demand in the local market even as the government has imposed a ban on new export contracts.
Thursday 2 August 2007
Indonesia sees rice prices remaining stable until yearend amid sufficient supply
The Indonesian government expects rice prices to remain stable for the remainder of the year as it will maintain rice stocks at the ideal level of 1.5-2 million tons, deputy coordinating minister for economic affairs Bayu Krisnamurti said.
Wednesday 1 August 2007
Pak challenges India's Super Basmati claim
The Indian and Pakistani commerce ministers might come out on Wednesday with a positive statement on the long-pending joint Geographical Indications(GI) on Basmati but a notice from Islamabad to New Delhi on registering Super Basmati has already spiked the mood against such a move.
The notice sent to the Indian government, confirmed by sources in the commerce ministry, comes in the wake of India registering Super Basmati variety in 2006 for export.
Pakistan believes India's registration of the variety could hit its international market. Pakistan exports close to 800,000 tonnes of the variety annually.
But Indian groups contend that the registration of Super Basmati came as a retaliatory move when Pakistan in negotiations with EU registered the right in 2004 to export Pusa Basmati — a variety known to be widespread in India.
The Indian government's reciprocal action came within two weeks of the Pakistani move. Sources said that the Indian right over Super was bound to stand any legal challenge that Pakistan might put up in pursuance of the notice.
"We registered Super as a Indian variety only after research done by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) confirmed that the Super variety was the same as a Indian variety traded traditionally in the country as Shabnam or Sikandar generic names. This study had been confirmed in 2003," sources told TOI.
They emphasised that despite the PAU study being available with India, the government did not move on the issue till Pakistan went ahead and registered the Pusa variety as theirs. Officially though, sources said, the issue came up for discussion during the commerce secretary level talks on Tuesday and the two countries seemed to have agreed to work together. A joint statement is expected on Wednesday sources said.
Sources in the commerce ministry raise doubt about how India would progress on the GI issue in the wake of the legal notice even though Pakistan is keen to move on both fronts — attack the Super Basmati registration and look at the possibility of a joint GI.
"It's a rather contradictory move on Pakistan's part. It will be difficult to move on the GI issue without resolving the legal conundrum on Super Basmati," sources in commerce ministry told.
The joint GI has been lying on the backburner for long with trading lobbies in India and Pakistan at loggerheads over basmati trade issues, as TOI had reported earlier. Within India, the agriculture and commerce ministries too have too been playing different tunes on the basmati issue.
Sources say that the key trouble with defining a GI for Basmati is the way Basmati is defined. Tweaking the Basmati definition one way or the other could end up with gains or losses not only for traders but also farmers across the country growing different traditional or evolved varieties of the aromatic rice.
The notice sent to the Indian government, confirmed by sources in the commerce ministry, comes in the wake of India registering Super Basmati variety in 2006 for export.
Pakistan believes India's registration of the variety could hit its international market. Pakistan exports close to 800,000 tonnes of the variety annually.
But Indian groups contend that the registration of Super Basmati came as a retaliatory move when Pakistan in negotiations with EU registered the right in 2004 to export Pusa Basmati — a variety known to be widespread in India.
The Indian government's reciprocal action came within two weeks of the Pakistani move. Sources said that the Indian right over Super was bound to stand any legal challenge that Pakistan might put up in pursuance of the notice.
"We registered Super as a Indian variety only after research done by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) confirmed that the Super variety was the same as a Indian variety traded traditionally in the country as Shabnam or Sikandar generic names. This study had been confirmed in 2003," sources told TOI.
They emphasised that despite the PAU study being available with India, the government did not move on the issue till Pakistan went ahead and registered the Pusa variety as theirs. Officially though, sources said, the issue came up for discussion during the commerce secretary level talks on Tuesday and the two countries seemed to have agreed to work together. A joint statement is expected on Wednesday sources said.
Sources in the commerce ministry raise doubt about how India would progress on the GI issue in the wake of the legal notice even though Pakistan is keen to move on both fronts — attack the Super Basmati registration and look at the possibility of a joint GI.
"It's a rather contradictory move on Pakistan's part. It will be difficult to move on the GI issue without resolving the legal conundrum on Super Basmati," sources in commerce ministry told.
The joint GI has been lying on the backburner for long with trading lobbies in India and Pakistan at loggerheads over basmati trade issues, as TOI had reported earlier. Within India, the agriculture and commerce ministries too have too been playing different tunes on the basmati issue.
Sources say that the key trouble with defining a GI for Basmati is the way Basmati is defined. Tweaking the Basmati definition one way or the other could end up with gains or losses not only for traders but also farmers across the country growing different traditional or evolved varieties of the aromatic rice.
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