Thailand expected to maintain as world's largest rice exporter in 2015

BANGKOK, February 3 (TNA) - The Thai Rice Exporters Association says it is confident that Thailand will maintain as the world's top rice exporter for the second consecutive year in 2015, with the country's total rice export expected to reach 10 million tons. Thai Rice Exporters Association President Charoen Laothamatas projected on Tuesday that the country's rice export volume should total about 10 million tons this year. Charoen told journalists although the projected Thai rice export volume this year is lower from the historically-high level at about 10.97 last year, which was a 65.9 per cent surge from 2013, Thailand should maintain as the world's rice export champion this year. Charoen also revealed that Thailand's rice export value totaled about 174.86 billion baht last year, a surge by 30.6 per cent year-on-year. Charoen quoted the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as assessing that Thailand should actively export rice this year due to the country's high stockpiles of over 17 million tons of grains. However, the association viewed that the Thai government should sell only up to 3 million tons of rice from its stockpiles this year because there is limited demand worldwide, as many importing countries of Thai rice have weaker purchasing power due to lower oil prices. The association also forecast that Thailand's yield of second crop rice should drop by 30 per cent to 6-7 million tons this year due to dry weather. The association cautioned excessive sales of Thai rice should also affect domestic rice prices, while other major world rice exporters, like Vietnam and India, have huge amounts of rice for exports. The association predicted that global rice prices should decline this year, as Thailand is actively marketing its rice and baht appreciates. The association expected global rice trade should reach 42.6 million tons this year, equal to last year, with China to remain as the world's largest rice importer at 4.3 million tons, followed by Nigeria at 3.5 million tons, the Philippines and Iran at 1.7 million tons each and Iraq at 1.5 million tons. Meanwhile, the USDA predicted that Thai rice exports should top the world list again this year at 11.3 million tons, followed by 8.7 million tons from India, 6.7 million tons from Vietnam, 3.9 million tons from Pakistan and 3.4 million tons from the United States. (TNA)