Rice shipment prospects rosy

Rice shipment prospects rosy

A farmer harvesting paddy in Narathiwat province. Plantations in the North and Northeast have suffered from drought.
A farmer harvesting paddy in Narathiwat province. Plantations in the North and Northeast have suffered from drought.

Thailand's rice export prospects for next year remain promising, with a group of rice exporters predicting that shipments will stay at 10 million tonnes in 2019.

Charoen Laothammatas, president of Thai Rice Exporters Association, said that of the total, 2.5 million tonnes are expected to be Thai fragrant rice, 2.5 million tonnes parboiled rice and 5 million tonnes white rice and glutinous rice.

The association predicts that rice exports this year will reach 11 million tonnes, helped by robust purchase demand. White rice and parboiled rice have made up the majority of this year's rice shipments.

The Foreign Trade Department reported that in the first nine months Thailand shipped 8.4 million tonnes of rice, up 2.9% year-on-year, with an export value of US$4.31 billion (140 billion baht), up 21.4%.

Nine-month export volume accounted for 84% of the rice export target, set at 11 million tonnes this year by the ministry. Average export price is predicted at $512.67 per tonne, up 18%.

Thailand should export an average of 860,000 tonnes a month for the remaining months to achieve shipments of 11 million tonnes of milled rice.

For this year's shipments, hom mali and other fragrant rices varieties are expected to represent 2.5 million tonnes, with parboiled rice making up 2.8 million tonnes, glutinous rice 200,000 tonnes and white rice the rest.

Mr Charoen said next year's prospects for Thai hom mali premium rice are expected to remain bright, though a Cambodian premium fragrant rice, Malys Angkor, recently won the World's Best Rice award.

"We don't expect any impact from such an award," Mr Charoen said, citing continuous strong purchase demand for Thai premium rice.

Mr Charoen forecasts hom mali rice prices to stay at $1,000 per tonne on average next year.

In the first eight months, Thailand exported 800,000-900,000 tonnes of hom mali rice, down 20% from the same period last year.

The fall was largely due to high prices, which are quoted now at $1,100 per tonne.

The Commerce Ministry predicts that hom mali fragrant rice production for the 2018-19 main crop will drop 10% from the previous season because of drought in the North and Northeast.

The Commerce Ministry's preliminary survey found that rice plantations in northern and northeastern areas were hit hard by irregular rainfall.

As a result, paddy production for the annual harvest season, which starts later this month, will decline from 7.6 million tonnes in the previous season.

Last year's premium rice production also fell from 7.9-8 million tonnes of paddy in previous years because of the impact of floods.

The Commerce Ministry in partnership with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry surveyed rice plantations in 16 provinces during August and September.

The two ministries predicted that overall rice production will stay at about 25 million tonnes of paddy rice this year, on a par with the previous season.

White paddy production is estimated at 9.2 million tonnes, a marginal rise from the previous season, while glutinous paddy production is predicted to rise to 6.2 million tonnes from 6 million.

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