Rising Thai rice exports in 2017

BANGKOK, February 3 (TNA) - Thai rice exports are likely to continue expanding in volumes in 2017 although their prices are likely to decline. Making the projection in Bangkok on Friday, Thai Rice Exporters Association President Police Lieutenant Charoen Laothammatat told journalists that the country's rice exports were targeted to reach 9.5 million tonnes this year, totally worth about 4.3 billion US dollars, being the second to only India as the world's top rice exporter. Police Lieutenant Charoen foresaw that India's rice exports this year should exceed 10 million tonnes, while Thai rice exports should keep growing in volumes, thanks to high demand for rice from importing economies, especially China, where rice demand is high in line with its growing economy amid higher prices of locally-grown rice than those imported. Besides, demand for rice in other rice importing countries is rising in line with the rebounding world oil prices and the recovering global economy. The association's president assessed that exports of Thai white rice should stand at 4.6 million tonnes this year, followed by those of Hom Mali or fragrant or jasmine rice at 2.4 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes of parboiled rice and 300,000 tonnes of glutinous rice. The association's president suggested the Thai government to speedily release rice from official stocks that exceed 8.5 million tonnes currently through exports to raise domestic rice prices and income of local farmers, pointing out that the government needs to export more rice to China under a government-to-government (G-to-G) contract earlier signed. The association's Honourary President Chookiat Opaswong forecast that the average price of Thai rice this year should be around 430 US dollars per tonne, a further drop from last year, due to an impact from unstable foreign exchange rates amid stronger competition among world rice exporting nations. (TNA)