Vietnam, the world’s second-largest rice exporter, plans to sell 300,000 tonnes of rice annually to Guinea between now and 2015, a state-run newspaper said on Monday. The countries recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the three-year supply deal, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper said, but gave no details on prices or delivery times.
Vietnamese rice has seen prices fall with growing competition from top rice exporter India. Most Vietnamese rice sold to Africa has so far been handled by international trading firms as local exporters are reluctant to conduct direct trade due to uncertainty over payment terms. Last week, Vietnamese rice prices eased due to ample supply and a lack of demand at the end of a bumper harvest in the Mekong Delta. The 5-percent broken grain fell to $398-$400 a tonne, free-on-board basis, from $400 a tonne a week earlier.
