BANGKOK, June 10 — The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has predicted that world rice production would slightly rise this year due to higher demand, prompting Thailand to export more rice in the second half of this year.
Thailand’s Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) secretary-general Anan Lila said that FAO has forecast total world rice production for 2014/2015 at some 501.1 million tonnes, an increase of 0.8 per cent from the previous year, as the main rice producers of China, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam would be able to produce more rice.
Thailand, meanwhile, would see lower rice production from the out-of-season rice, due to severe drought.
However, as the world rice price lowers, demand for rice will rise, prompting the world rice market to sell around 39.3 million tonnes worth of rice this year, an increase from last year’s 37.2 million tonnes, a rise of about 5 per cent.
Pulling up world rice stocks from 174.8 million tonnes to 180.9 million tonnes, this would signify that the world food stability index has also risen from 35.7 to 36.0 for 2013/2014. FAO said that most of the rice would be from Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, while Indian and United States’s stocks might see a decline.
FAO forecasts that the world market demand for rice will pave the way for Thailand to export more rice in the latter half of this year and could help push Thailand into becoming the world’s number one rice exporter once again.
