OAE: Rice exports showing signs of improvment

BANGKOK, Dec 24 (TNA) -- The Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) pointed out the country's rice exports are showing signs of improving, revealing that the quantity of rice exports in 2016 is higher than last year's figure by 16 per cent. OAE's Agricultural Economics Operation Centre director, Bhumisak Rasri said that Thailand is exporting an average of 1.4 million tonnes of jasmine rice annually, noting that during the first 10 months of 2016 or from January to October, Thailand had already exported a total of 1.82 million tonnes of jasmine rice, an increase of about 16 per cent or 1.57 million tonnes from the year before. He said the main import markets of the Thai jasmine rice include the United States, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Canada. Mr Bhumisak added that Thailand has also maintained the highest mark shares for rice exports in many countries, with Vietnam and Cambodia become the top competitors for the country on rice exports. Moreover, he said that Thailand has recently adjusted the quality of Thai rice to meet the demands of international communities, so as to increase the potential and market shares within the export markets. Standards have been set to categorise the quality of Thai jasmine rice and general fragrance rice, including the provincial fragrance rice and Pathum fragrance rice. Mr Bhumisak further noted Thailand has exported the highest quantity of white rice at 42 per cent, during the first 10 months of the year, followed by the ports of 5 per cent white rice, 100 per cent jasmine rice, and Phatum fragrance rice. (TNA)