Thailand eyes to regain rice export championship this year

BANGKOK, May 8 (TNA) - Thailand has eyed to return to be the world's largest rice exporter within this year. Surasak Riangkrua, Director-General of the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Foreign Trade, told journalists on Thursday that he expects Thai rice exports to exceed 8 million tons this year, as he will lead his delegation to Central Africa and the Middle East in mid-May to hold talks on rice trade, as Africa is a big market and imports about 60 per cent of Thailand's total rice exports, or about 4 million tons, yearly. Surasak acknowledged that Nigeria, Iraq and many other countries in Africa and the Middle East are interested in and ready to import Thai rice. Besides, his department will put at least 400,000 tons of government rice up for auction next week in compliance with the government's plan to sell 800,000-1000,000 tons of its rice per month. Surasak said that rice brokers from many countries have also approached the Thai government to discuss rice purchases, as they know that the prices of Thai rice have bottomed out due to worldwide natural disasters. Surasak revealed that a rice export deal with Malaysia is expected, as well, to be concluded within this week, predicting that the deal should involve at least 600,000 tons of Thai rice. According to the senior Thai official, he believes that Thailand should export 8-10 million tons of rice this year and, thus, return to be the world's largest rice exporter. (TNA)