Rice is sold at a store in Narathiwat, southern Thailand. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai is aggressively promoting the sale of rice, leading the way with a government-to-government deal of 1 million tonnes with Indonesia, as well as another 1 million tonnes with the private sector.
Phumtham is paying a working visit to the US from January 17-22 to negotiate the expansion of the rice market, promote trade and investment relations, and seek new rice importers in the US market.
Thailand is the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, just after India. Besides the US, Thailand is in negotiations for rice sales with other countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and some African countries.
It aims to achieve total exports of no less than 8.5 million tonnes by the end of this year.
In the first 11 months of 2023, Thailand exported 7.94 million tonnes of rice, a 14.7% increase from the same period the previous year. The value of these exports amounted to 159.55 billion THB (4.61 billion USD), marking an increase of 28.9%.
Thailand's top rice export markets were Indonesia with 1.27 million tonnes, followed by Africa with 876,184 tonnes, Iraq at 814,805 tonnes, the US at 648,946 tonnes, and China at 367,204 tonnes./.
