Bangladesh could suspend a plan to import rice from India due to high prices, the country's food ministry said on Thursday while a deal with Thailand edged closer.
Bangladesh, the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, has emerged as a major importer of rice this year due to depleted stocks and record local prices following flash floods.
It could import as much as 1.2 million tonnes this year, and has so far struck deals with Vietnam and expressed interest in Thai and Indian rice.
But it now said deals with the world's biggest rice exporter, India, might not happen.
"Chances are very thin as their offer seems high," Badrul Hasan, the head of Bangladesh's state grain buyer told Reuters.
India's 5 per cent broken parboiled rice prices fell by $6 to $405-$408 per tonne this week on sluggish demand.
Hasan said Bangladesh could reconsider if India could assure an immediate delivery, but it is already looking to Cambodia to replenish stocks.
A Bangladeshi delegation, led by Food Minister Kamrul Islam, will visit Cambodia early next month to sign a memorandum to import rice, two food ministry officials said.
Its deal with Thailand is also making progress. A Thai delegation is due to visit Dhaka next week to finalize a government-to-government rice deal of up to 200,000 tonnes, Hasan said.
The Thai Rice Exporters Association told Reuters last week the process could take a month and a half.
Thai private traders also hoped to secure deals with Bangladesh, saying weak demand from abroad has led to a constant decline in rice prices since they reached the highest level in almost four years at a market average of $455 per tonne on June 22.
Thailand's benchmark 5-per cent broken rice was quoted at $395-$405, free-on-board (FOB) Bangkok, on Thursday.
Thailand's commerce ministry said there was a significant interest from Sri Lanka, but it has yet to strike anything with the would-be first-time buyer of Thai rice.
Vietnam, the world's third biggest rice exporter, is observing a slow trade. The country's benchmark 5-per cent broken rice dipped to $400-$405 a tonne, FOB Saigon, from $405-$410 last week.
Vietnamese traders are currently eyeing deals with the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers.
On July 25, the country will open a tender for 250,000 tonnes of rice to boost its thinning stockpile ahead of the typhoon season later this year.
Traders from Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore are expected to submit bids.
Bangladesh will also open its fifth tender since May to buy 50,000 tonnes of rice on July 27.
A report by the world-grain.com adds: An expected smaller harvest of Boro rice has led to a lowering in the rice production forecast for Bangladesh, according to a July 13 Global Agricultural Information Network report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Rice production in Bangladesh for the 2017-18 marketing year was forecast at 34.18 million tonnes,
down from 34.578 million tonnes in 2016-17 and compared with 34.5 million tonnes in 2015-16.
 "The Boro rice production estimate is lowered to 17.8 million tonnes on crop losses caused by neck blast disease as well as adverse weather, including hailstorms and repeated flash floods, during an unusually heavy pre-monsoon rain 20 days before harvest: heavy rainfall fell from late March to the middle of May," the USDA noted in the report. "The flooding damaged over 1 million tonnes of Boro rice crop across 400,000 hectares of wetlands (in Haor) and lowlands in nine districts."
The USDA noted that rainfall in Bangladesh during April was the highest in 35 years, and the crop loss was aggravated by a fungi attack on a limited area of Boro rice crop at several northern and southern districts of the country.
The forecast for rice imports in 2017-18 was raised to 1.2 million tonnes, reflecting expectations of "robust consumer demand, expanding food safety net program, lower public stocks, and relaxed trade and financial policy impact," the USDA said.
The USDA noted that 2016-17 wheat production is forecast to be 3% lower at 1.2 million tonnes on reduced cultivation area as some farmers sought to avoid risk of a recurrence of wheat blast. Meanwhile, the 2017-18 wheat production forecast held steady at 1.3 million tonnes, assuming normal weather conditions, according to the USDA.
The forecast for wheat imports in 2017-18 was raised to 6 million tonnes on "expected resilient domestic demand and lower international prices," the USDA said. [Read More]

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Source: The Financial Express