Bangkok, Nov 5 - The benchmark Thai rice price fell to $550 per tonne on Wednesday, barely half the record high seen in April, as supply increased at the start of the harvesting season in Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter.
Bangkok exporters said the median price for 100 percent B grade white rice had fallen around 5 percent from last week's $580. In April it hit $1,080 per tonne.
"There is no demand as key buyers have stopped buying," one exporter said.
Prices were expected to fall further over the next few weeks because of an increase in supply and thin demand, traders said.
"We can sell only premium grade fragrant rice to some of our traditional buyers, in lots of around 200 tonnes," another exporter said. In previous months, lots of around 10,000 tonnes had been common.
The harvesting season for Thailand's main crop starts in early November and this year around 23.8 million tonnes of paddy is expected to hit the market, along with rice that the government is trying to sell from its stockpiles.
The government plans to sell 3.1 million tonnes of the 4.3 million tonnes in its stocks through a tender on Wednesday.
Traders are likely to put in prices below market levels for rice that has been stored since 2005. It was unclear what price the government would accept or how much it would sell.