Vietnam buys Indian rice for first time in decades: Industry officials

Vietnam, the world's third biggest exporter of rice, has started buying the grain from rival India for the first time in decades after local prices jumped to their highest in nine years amid limited domestic supplies, four industry officials told Reuters. 
 

The purchases underscore tightening supplies in Asia, which could lift rice prices in 2021 and even force traditional buyers of rice from Thailand and Vietnam to switch to India — the world's biggest exporter of the grain.

Indian traders have contracted to export 70,000 tonnes of 100 per cent broken rice for January and February shipments at around $310 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, the industry officials say.

"For the first time we are exporting to Vietnam," BV Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters on Monday.