Asian rice exporting hubs saw tepid activity this week, with prices for the staple from top exporter India dipping on lower demand, while Bangladesh mulled a review of its ban on exports of the grain.

India's 5 per cent broken parboiled variety was quoted around $377-$380 per tonne, down from last week's $387-$390.

Demand from African buyers was weak as they have ample inventories, said Nitin Gupta, Vice-president, rice business, at Olam India. Aggressive selling of old inventories by China at lower prices has also weighed on prices, he added.

The country’s rice exports for April-February dropped 9.4 per cent from a year earlier to 10.57 million tonnes, as leading buyer Bangladesh trimmed its purchases due to a bumper local harvest, a government body said.

On Thursday, Bangladesh’s commerce minister said a long-standing ban on rice exports will be discussed after strong pleas from traders to lift the restriction.

“If we have surplus, we can allow rice exports,” Tipu Munshi told reporters after a meeting with the rice traders association.

Bangladesh, traditionally the world’s fourth biggest rice producer, banned overseas shipments of some common rice varieties in May 2008 following a spike in domestic prices. It banned all rice exports a year later. In 2017, the country was forced to massively increase imports to shore up domestic reserves after floods wrought havoc on local crops and pushed domestic rice prices to record highs, but domestic stocks have since greatly improved.

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