Thai rice exports likely to meet target in 2016

BANGKOK, December 29 (TNA) - The Thai Rice Exporters Association has projected that the country's overall rice exports this year should reach 9.5 million tons as earlier target amid rather stable prices of grains on the world market. According to the association's latest report, released on Thursday, Thai rice exports stood at about one million tons last month, worth about 15.70 billion baht totally, a 32.1 per cent year-on-year surge in volume and 24.8 per cent year-on-year increase in value, as there were rice shipments to China, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines and other Asian and African markets. The association assessed that overall Thai rice exports this month alone should reach 800,000 million tons, as there have been purchase orders for newly-harvested Thai fragrant rice, white rice and parboiled rice, making total Thai rice export this year likely to meet the earlier target of 9.5 million tons. The association's report also said that rice prices on the world market have been rather stable, but only Vietnam has cut its prices of rice exports to draw in more purchase orders. The association quoted its free-on-board (FOB) price of 5 per cent Thai white rice publicly announced on December 21, 2016 at 370 US dollars per ton, while FOB world prices for 5 per cent white rice posted on the RICEONLINE.COM website as of December 28, 2016 were 337 US dollars per ton for Vietnam's rice, 355 US dollars per ton for both India's and Pakistan's rice. (TNA)