Thailand works to boost rice exports

Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA)

Bangkok (VNA/ NNT) - The Thai Ministry of Commerce is set to invite rice buyers and importers worldwide to a meeting in Thailand next week to boost exports of the country’s rice. 

Commerce Minister Aphiradee Tantaraporn said more than 300 rice and cassava importers from 29 nations across the word have accepted Thailand’s invitation to participate in a business meeting next week. Four agreements will be signed between importers from Hong Kong and Thai rice exporters during the meeting. 

The deals will see more than 190,000 tonnes of Jasmine and GABA rice as well as rice berry exported to Hong Kong this year. To further help rice farmers, the Ministry of Commerce has introduced them to various channels including mom and pop shops, retail stores and an online platform, thaicommercestore.com. 

There will also be roadshows about Thai rice overseas. The Ministry of Commerce will lead a group of Thai exporters to Malaysia, Indonesia and China before the end of this year while Iranian rice importers are scheduled to arrive in Thailand this month to inspect the quality of Thai rice. 

In the past, Iran usually imported 700,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand per year. Since the introduction of the rice scheme, Iran decided to lower rice imports from the Kingdom as the grain quality did not meet the requirements.-VNA