WRAPUP 1-Vietnam lifts rice export ban, Manila seals deal

By Ho Binh Minh and Carmel Crimmins

HANOI/MANILA, June 18 (Reuters) - Vietnam has lifted a ban on rice exports, signalling improving supplies on the world market, while the Philippines completed its purchases for the year with a deal to buy 600,000 tonnes of Vietnamese grain.

The twin moves could speed a recent decline in international rice prices from record highs -- prices had nearly trebled this year -- helping to ease food inflation and boosting supplies of the staple in Asia.

But traders added that prices were unlikely to crash as a ban by India remained in place, while output from the new crops in leading producing nations was yet to arrive on world markets.

Vietnam lifted its ban on the signing of rice export deals, saying it would only allow contracts for a limited quantity as it caps exports of the grain in the first nine months of this year at 3.5 million tonnes.

And Manila's $564 million purchase of 600,000 tonnes of rice from Hanoi in a government-to-government deal takes the world's largest rice importer out of the market until possibly the end of the year, when it may start stocking up for 2009.

"There are signs of improving supplies but we still have a few bullish factors," said one trader.

Thai benchmark rice prices RI-THWHB-P1 fell 3 percent to $795 a tonne, free on board, in the week to Wednesday, down around 26 percent from a record peak of $1,080 hit in April.

Traders in Manila scoffed at the price of $940 a tonne, including cost and freight, the Philippines paid for its latest shipment, largely composed of the 25-percent broken variety.