BANGKOK, Thailand -- The price of Thai 100-percent B-grade white rice , the world's benchmark, fell 6.5 percent Wednesday from last week due to continued weak demand, exporters said.

The median price quoted by Bangkok exporters was $720.00 per ton, down from last week's $770.00 and 33.0 percent below a record high of $1,080.00 per ton in April.

"Supply is increasing while there's no fresh demand after the last big lot of 600,000 tons that the Philippines bought from Vietnam," one exporter said.

Prices have eased significantly in recent weeks after the world's biggest importer, the Philippines, completed its purchases for the year. Leading producers have also planted additional crops to cash in on high prices.

Traders expect Thai rice prices to fall over the next few weeks to $700.00 a ton -- the equivalent of the 14,000 baht ($419.00) per ton the government has guaranteed to pay farmers for unmilled paddy.

The government is expecting a harvest of 7.6 million tons of paddy rice from the June-July paddy crop this year, compared with only four million tons last year.

($1=33.40 Baht)