Almost 300 buyers from 41 countries have been brought together with sellers of Thai rice and cassava, and their processed products, at a four-day meeting the Commerce Ministry hopes will generate 63 billion baht in sales.
The buyers represent 112 companies and are meeting with representatives from 73 firms selling Thai rice and rice products and 39 companies selling cassava products.
The match-making meeting began on Monday at a hotel in Bangkok and continues until Thursday.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said the event is aimed at pushing exports. Trade officials stationed overseas were instructed to invite buyers to a face-to-face meeting with the sellers.
The ministry had hoped the four-day event would generate US$1.8 billion in sales (around 63 billion baht) - $806 million from rice and rice products and around $1 billion from cassava products.
The ministry had already witnessed the signing of four memorandums of understanding for sales of rice and one for cassava, Mr Apiradi said.
CEC International Holding Ltd from Hong Kong which owns 759 supermarket branches, 250 of them in Hong Kong, will buy 10,000 tonnes of Hom Mali rice from Siam Diamond Export Rice Co.
China’s Fu Lai Chun Group will purchase 800,000 tonnes of cassava chip worth $156 million from PR Intertrade Co, for use in ethanol production.
Mr Apiradi said rice and cassava were significant farm products for Thailand. The country exported 6.85 million tonnes of rice worth $3.085 billion in the period January to September this year. Exports of cassava products totalled 8.12 million tonnes, worth $2.17 billion, over the nine months.