Thai rice (Source: AFP)Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai Government announced on November 9 that the country has won a contract to supply 500,000 tonnes of rice to Indonesia for 8 billion THB (roughly 223 million USD).
The amount will contain about 450,000 tonnes of 15 percent grade white rice and the rest will be 5 percent grade white rice. Shipments are expected to be done from November this year to March next year.
Earlier, Thailand also signed a contract to sell 2 million tonnes of the grain to China .
As one of the five largest rice exporters in the world, it is currently stocking 13 million tonnes of rice, lower than 18 million tonnes earlier.
The same day, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture revealed a plan to expand berry rice fields to about 3,200 hectares in the next three years, four times larger than the current area, aiming to meet the world’s high demand for organic rice and increase farmer incomes as its value doubles that of the normal white rice.
With increasing demand from China, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the US, this kind of rice is being sold with a price of about 1.4 USD per kilogramme in the domestic market and four times higher in foreign markets.-VNA
