Thailand on track to become world's second-largest rice exporter

A rice store in the southern province of Narathiwat in Thailand. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA) on January 4 announced that Thailand is on track to become the world’s second-largest rice exporter as 6.91 million tonnes of rice were shipped abroad in the first 11 months of 2022.

In the reviewed period, India topped the list of rice exporters in the world with 18.25 million tonnes exported, and Vietnam sold broad 6.67 million tonnes.

Charoen Laothamatas, President of TREA, is confident that Thailand's rice export volume in 2022 would exceed the target of 7.5 million tonnes thanks to increased demand from Iraq, China, and the US.

He added that the volume of rice exports in Thailand in the first 11 months of last year marked a 26.8% increase compared with that of 2021, bringing the country a revenue of 123.51 billion baht (3.63 billion USD). This is a year-on-year increase of 29.2%.

In November 2022 alone, Thailand exported 706,270 tonnes of rice, down 11.1% from the previous month, but revenue increased by 2.6% to 14.3 billion baht (nearly 420 million USD).

Countries and territories that import Thai rice include Hong Kong (China), Canada, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Angola, Mozambique, the Philippines, Cameroon, South Africa, Yemen, and Benin.

The TREA forecast that Thailand's rice exports in December 2022 would reach about 800,000 tonnes, which will bring the country's total rice export volume for the year to about 7.71 million tonnes./.