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Thailand hopes to sell more rice to neighbour countries

The Thai government has approved a three-year plan under a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) to sell one million tonnes of rice annually to the Philippines from 2014-16, according to Bangkok Post newspaper.
The Thai government has approved a three-year plan under a newmemorandum of understanding (MOU) to sell one million tonnes of riceannually to the Philippines from 2014-16, according to Bangkok Postnewspaper.

The MOU will allow Thailand to beeligible to participate in bidding to sell rice to the Philippines,which also has similar arrangements with Vietnam and Cambodia undergovernment-to-government (G2G) deals.

The BangkokPost said Thailand's government bid to sell rice to the Philippinesthree times in 2012 and 2013 but managed to sell only 120,000 tonnes in2012 and 767,000 tonnes last year.

It added that thecountry shipped 126,866 tonnes to the Philippines in the first sevenmonths of this year, up 1,328 percent from the same period last year.

The newspaper quoted president of the Thai RiceExporters Association Charoen Laothamatas as saying that thePhilippines, which is expected to import 1.45 million tonnes of ricethis year, has shifted to buying rice from Vietnam over the last coupleof years because of Thai rice prices higher than market prices.

He also disclosed that the Indonesian government has now agreed to buy175,000 tonnes of Thai white rice, mainly from new harvests, under aG2G contract.-VNA
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