At their annual meeting inChiang Mai, Thailand, on Sept. 16, the two sides discussed the prospectof including cooperation in the rice issue into the regional cooperationprogramme towards the building the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in2015.
Representatives of the Vietnam Food Association (VinaFood)and the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA) also signed a memorandumof understanding on information exchange in the related field.
Theannual meeting between VinaFood and TREA took place when the Thai newgovernment plans to apply again the policy to buy rice from localfarmers at high prices.
Thailand and Vietnam are two biggest riceexporters in the world, controlling around half of the rice volumetraded in the international market.
Thailand plans to export morethan 10 million tonnes of rice this year and the figure may reduce to 8million tonnes in 2012 due to impacts of the new policy./.