Thailand's rice exports hit new high

BANGKOK, November 30 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce announced on Wednesday that Thailand's rice exports appear to hit a historic high in several decades this year, with a total shipment of over 10 million tonnes at the end of 2011, retaining the Kingdom as the world's top rice exporter despite floods over the past couple of months. Manas Soiploi, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, acknowledged that Thai rice exports had reached 10.04 million tonnes, worth about six billion US dollars or about 200 billion baht, during the January-November period of this year, a some 30 per cent year-on-year surge. Manas assessed that Thailand would export about 500,000 tonnes of rice in December alone, raising the country's rice exports to total over 10.5 million tonnes at the end of this year, its highest record over the past several decades. The chief of the Department of Foreign Trade attributed the active Thai rice exports this year to natural disasters and rice export bans in other rice-exporting countries, as well as increasing demand from some rice importing countries to fill up their national rice stocks and more attractive prices of Thai rice. According to the senior official, his Commerce Ministry has also successfully implemented its proactive rice-marketing strategies, resulting in Thailand's securing government-to-government or G-to-G rice export deals with Indonesia and Bangladesh, totally over 300,000 tonnes. The senior Commerce Ministry official said he foresees the same situation of Thai rice exports next year, when most other rice exporting countries are expected to face heavy downpours due to the La Nina weather phenomenon, affecting their normal rice produce amid growing demand from importing countries, assuring Thailand's continual bright prospect for rice exports and remaining as the world’s largest rice exporter in the long run, with total export volume of 9.5-10 million tonnes annually, thanks to more Thai rice produce after floods to make up for past damages and to sufficiently meet world demand. (TNA)