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SINGAPORE: Thailand expects to harvest an additional one million tonnes of rice this year because of good weather conditions. The country is revising its 8.7-million-tonne export projection upwards by about 9 percent.
In a meeting with Singapore rice importers, Thailand's Foreign Trade Department has said that supply will be enough to meet global demand.
Thailand hopes to export 9.5 to 10 million tonnes of rice this year – about 35 percent of the global demand. On average, the country produces 20.5 million tonnes of rice annually and about 11 million tonnes of it is for its own consumption.
Thai trade officials said rice prices have stabilised in the past weeks and they believe the market is resilient enough to cope with the recent natural disasters in Asia.
Apiradi Tantraporn, director-general, Department of Foreign Trade, said: "With the cyclone disaster in Myanmar, that means about 500 metric tonnes of rice that Myanmar had expected to export this year were wiped out. But we hope it would not have a high impact on the price."
Ms Apiradi added that Thailand's Agricultural Ministry hopes to improve the efficiency of Thai farmers by helping them to build silos to store excess rice stock.
More rice buyers are expected to turn to Thailand, as India and Vietnam have decided to restrict their rice exports.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of Thailand Rice Exporter Association, said: "That's 4 or 5 million tonnes out from the export side. I think Thailand can easily fill up those portions left out by India and Vietnam this year. In the first 4 months, we have already exported up to 4 million tonnes."
Singapore imported over 270,000 tonnes of rice last year and 61 percent of that amount came from Thailand. That is about 3 percent of Thailand's total market share.
Local industry players are glad that Thailand has pledged not to limit the export of rice as they hope the move will help to regulate supply and ease the pressure on prices.
Andrew Tan, chairman of Singapore General Rice Importers, said: "There are (natural) disasters, global warming, and so many other uncertainties. Moreover, the oil prices are shooting to record high.
"All these factors will add up and the price of rice that is going to the market will be higher. Even if the price has an adjustment in the future, I don't see it falling back to the level that it was at a year ago."
Singapore importers said the spike in prices also means that more capital needs to be set aside to fulfil the government stockpile.
Importers are required to contribute two packs of rice to the stockpile for every pack that they sell in the market. It is estimated that the local stockpile could last for three months in the event of a global rice shortage.
- CNA/so
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