Booming Thai rice exports likely to reach 7.5m tonnes

Booming Thai rice exports likely to reach 7.5m tonnes

Thai rice exports are expected to exceed 7.5 million tonnes this year after seeing healthy growth in the first eight months, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Pitak Udomwichaiwat, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said Thailand shipped 4.92 million tonnes of rice between Jan 1 and Aug 31, up 51.4% from the same period last year, while the value rose by 30.5% to US$2.54 billion.

The increase was attributed mainly to the weak baht and a rise in supply to the market.

"Thai rice export prices became more competitive as the baht weakened," said Mr Pitak. "The Commerce Ministry is thus more confident that the exports may outpace a target of 7.5 million tonnes set by the ministry."

As of Aug 31, the price of 5% Thai white rice was quoted at $428 per tonne, while the same rice from Vietnam cost $393-397, $378-382 from Pakistan, and $338-342 from India.

Thailand's parboiled rice is selling for $442 per tonne, while Pakistan and India are selling theirs for $398 and $402 per tonne, respectively.

Thailand shipped 6.11 million tonnes of grains last year, up 6.68% from 5.73 million tonnes in 2020. The exports were worth 108 billion baht last year, down by 7.14% from 116 billion baht in 2020.

Last year's shipments comprised 2.35 million tonnes of white rice (+18.9%), 1.4 million tonnes of Thai hom mali rice (-1.7%), 1.4 million tonnes of parboiled rice (+1.6%), 550,574 tonnes of aromatic rice (-4.1%) and 310,878 tonnes of glutinous rice (+12.4%).

For the 2021/2022 harvest season, Thailand's rice production is expected to rise to 30-32 million tonnes of paddy rice, or 20 million tonnes of milled rice, up from 27-28 million tonnes of paddy rice, or 17 million tonnes of milled rice, in the 2020/2021 season.

In a related development, Mr Pitak said his department has partnered with Thai rice exporters in a bid to boost rice shipments to Singapore after the city-state recently reopened following the easing of Covid-19 outbreaks.

Mr Pitak said Singaporean demand for Thai rice is expected to increase as consumers on the island generally favour Thai grains.

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