Thailand has once again become the world’s top rice exporter after having sold 1.5 million tonnes of rice to foreign countries in the first two months of this year, said the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT).

Experts forecast that Thailand is likely to sell as much as 8.5 million tonnes this year thanks to its good quality and declining world rice prices.

Meanwhile, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Yukol Limlaemthong predicted that this year’s output may hit 26 million tonnes, 10-11 million tonnes of them will be sold at home and the remaining will go overseas.

The Thai Department of Foreign Trade has announced that trade representatives from Thailand are visiting Iraq in a bid to revive a stalled rice deal with the Middle East nation.

According to Surasak Riengkrue, the department’s Director General, the March 24-28 visit will seek a rice deal while regaining the country’s confidence in the kingdom’s product.

He lauded Iraq ’s market as one with great potential and predicted Thailand will be able to sell a lot of rice there if the negotiation is successful.

Prices of rice in the international market are expected to fall in the range of 360-380 USD per ton in April. However, the prices are likely to bounce back in the second half as importers tend to stock up the grains during this time of year.

Since the government’s rice subsidy programme ended, rice prices have dropped to an average of 7,000 THB per tonne in Thailand, causing prices of packed rice to decline as well.-VNA