Permanent-Secretary for Commerce Vatchari Vimooktayon said she is certain Thailand will regain its leading position as the world’s No. 1 rice exporter this year.
Vatchari said the strong baht has affected Thai rice exports in terms of rice price direction, but she said this year she believed Thailand would be able to export 8 million tonnes as targeted.
She was positive that the country would regain its No.1 rice exporter status because there is still a high demand for rice in the world market, particularly from China, which is ordering big lots of rice from Thailand.
She said even though currently both India and Vietnam export more rice than Thailand, she believed the two countries would export less in the second half of this year, for they would have smaller rice harvests and less rice in their stocks.
The Foreign Trade Department is negotiating government-to-government (G2G) rice buying-selling contracts with interested countries in order to push Thai rice exports to reach its target this year.
