Rice exports from Thailand expected to decline

25-Jul-2024 08:48 PM

Bangkok. Thailand, located in South-East Asia, was till now the second largest rice exporting country in the world after India, but during the current year, it may slip behind Vietnam to the third position because, firstly, its competitive capacity has weakened and secondly, no new variety of rice has been developed there which can be capable of meeting the changing demand of the global market.

The performance of Thailand's rice export sector is seen to be weak. Actually, last year, rice production in Thailand was affected due to less rainfall due to the outbreak of El Niño weather cycle, due to which its exportable stock is likely to decrease.

The export offer price of rice in Thailand is also running much higher than India and Vietnam. This is the reason why Indonesia's government agency - Bulog often gives priority to the import of rice from Vietnam instead of Thailand.

Similarly, in the Philippines too, priority is being given to the import of Vietnamese rice. The poor countries of Africa are insisting on importing cheap sela rice from India instead of Thailand and Vietnam, which means that Thailand will not get much success in rice exports there either.

But Thailand may get an opportunity to export rice better to the countries of the Gulf region, some countries of the North and South American continents and other nearby countries including Malaysia and Singapore.

Actually, the commercial export of non-basmati white rice has been stopped from India for the last one year, which is benefiting Thailand and Vietnam.

There, the exporters take advantage of this opportunity and keep increasing the export offer price of their rice.

Earlier, it was not getting this opportunity because of India because India's raw (white) rice was available at a very cheap price and to stay in competition with it, Thailand and Vietnam were also forced to keep the export offer price of their rice low.