India's entry into the field is likely to increase difficulties for rice exporters in Thailand
04-Oct-2024 03:37 PM
India's entry into the field is likely to increase difficulties for rice exporters in Thailand
Bangkok. Thailand was already facing tough challenges and competition from countries like Vietnam, Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia in the global rice export market, and now its difficulties will increase further with India's entry into the market. Recently, the Indian government has deregulated the export of non-basmati white rice and reduced the export duty on sella rice from 20 percent to 10 percent. As a result, the export of general category rice from India is likely to increase rapidly in the coming months, which is bound to affect other exporting countries. Indian rice is available at a lower price than other countries.
In countries like Vietnam, Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia, the production cost remains low. The crop yield rate remains high and the currency is also weak, which gives these countries an additional advantage in the rice export market. On the other hand, Thailand's currency-baht is often strong compared to the US dollar, which makes it expensive for foreign importers to import rice from there. Now India has emerged as a serious challenge.
The President of the Thai Rice Exporters Association has said that the competitiveness of Thai rice has decreased due to India's return to the global export market and the exchange rate of 'Baht' against the US dollar reaching a 30-month high (1 dollar = 32.37 Baht).
The wholesale market price of 5% broken white rice in Thailand was 2200 Baht per quintal at the beginning of the current year, which has now come down to 1600-1650 Baht per quintal. As a result, the price of paddy there has also been affected. When the export of Indian rice (white) was banned, the price of paddy with 25% moisture content in Thailand was 1000 Baht per quintal, but now it has come down to 800-900 Baht per quintal. The price of rice there is likely to fall further as exporters will have to cut the export offer price of rice to face competition from other countries.