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Demand for Thai rice increasing

The exports of Thailand’s rice are likely to surge due to growing demand in the world, according to the country’s Foreign Trade Department.
The exports of Thailand’s rice are likely to surge due to growingdemand in the world, according to the country’s Foreign TradeDepartment.

The department said several countries,including the US, China and Malaysia, are showing their interestto sign rice deals with Thailand.

The US isplanning to purchase about 1 million tonnes from Thailand, and Chinaand Malaysia are planning for a combined 600,000 tonnes, accordingto the department.

The Thai Commerce Ministry alsostated that China will probably sign agreements to buy an additional 1million tonnes from Thailand after the inspection of some warehousesin Thailand.

Between January 1 and April 4,Thailand exported around 2.11 million tonnes of rice, up about 29percent from the 1.64 million tonnes in the same period last year,reported the department.

The Thai government stillhas about 10 million tonnes of rice in stock and is keen to sell thegrain quickly due to quality concerns and the obligation to return about20 billion baht (around 619 million USD) to the Finance Ministry by May31.

It added that Iraq will soon resume riceimports from Thailand , while the country is also hopeful of winningthe tender to supply 800,000 tonnes to Philippines .

The Thai government has sold more than 1 million tonnes of rice inMarch 2014 and is planning to sell another 1 million tons to raise about8 billion baht (around 247 million USD) every month in 2014.

China, Malaysia and the US are traditional markets for Thairice. According to data from the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA),the US imported about 382,000 tonnes in 2013 and about 35,060tonnes in January this year.

The figure for Chinawere 277,547 tonnes in 2013 and about 35,495 tonnes in January, whilethose for Malaysia were 155,230 tonnes in 2013 and about 9,439 tonnes inJanuary.-VNA
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