BANGKOK, 9 July 2012 –The Department of Foreign Trade is to enforce measures aimed at preventing rice fromThailand’s neighboring countries coming into the country.
According to Director-General of Foreign Trade Department of Commerce Ministry Manus Soiploy, as Thailand will be required by the agreement of ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA to reduce tariffs and do away with import quotas on rice from neighboring countries, the Department of Foreign Trade has come up with measures to prevent those countries from dumping their rice into the country; allowing rice to be imported only between the months of May to July and August to October, during which local rice production and is usually low.
As for pro-active measures, since Thailand and Vietnam, the 2 major rice producers in the world, which together export over 50 percent of rice to global markets, have joined hands to establish the “Organization of Rice Exporting Countries” or OREC in order to control and stabilize global rice markets.
In addition, the Department of Foreign Trade has drawn up a rice market strategy focusing more on export value than volume exported. The strategy will be divided into 2 parts: Jasmine rice strategy and white rice strategy. These two strategic plans will emphasize on creating added-value , long-term marketing, production cost reduction, and consumer group specification.
For further information, please log onto www.dft.go.th.
