Kingdom to lose rice export crown

The Commerce Ministry reported yesterday that in fact Thailand had only shipped 1.46 million tonnes of rice under the G2G contracts, with a further 300,000 tonnes earmarked for the rest of the year.
Including shipments by private exporters, total export volume was therefore only 5.04 million tonnes in the first nine months of the year. This implies that Thailand will definitely lose its crown as the world’s rice-export champion this year.
The Thai Rice Exporters Association reported that Thailand was now the world’s third-largest rice trader. As of September 18, India was in the top place with total export volume of 5.56 million tonnes, while Vietnam was second with 5.35 million tonnes.
Korbsook Iamsuri, president of the association, said exports would be about 6.5 million tonnes this year if the government’s figure of 1.46 million tonnes is included, Thailand will not therefore be able to achieve export of 8.5 million tonnes as the Commerce Ministry projected previously.
“Average shipment from private exporters will be about 500,000 tonnes of rice a month. Thus about 1.5 million tonnes of rice is expected to be exported in the last three months of this year. If the government plans to ship only 300,000 tonnes of rice in those three months, Thailand will export about 6.5 million to 7 million tonnes of rice for the whole year.”
However, Korbsook said exports could be increased slightly if Thailand can ship jasmine rice from the upcoming harvest season.
Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom yesterday held an urgent news conference to clarify the G2G rice-trading issue, saying the government had released 1.46 million tonnes to four trading partners.
He said a total of 1.46 million tonnes of rice had been shipped by private exporters, which was 20 per cent of the total G2G-contract volume of 7.32 million tonnes.
The government plans to ship 300,000 tonnes in the remaining months, while about 5.56 million tonnes under the G2G deals will be exported next year.
Boonsong said the G2G contracts with four countries – Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh and China – resulted from memoranda of understanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra signed with trade-partner countries during her official visits.
At first, Thailand signed MoUs to sell 8 million tonnes of rice within three to five years. The MoUs became actual trading contracts after the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department negotiated the terms with each country, Boonsong explained.
He indicated that the government had opened letters of credit for receiving money from trading partners.
So far, the government has received Bt42 billion from these contracts, and has returned this to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. Before the end of the year, the government plans to pay a total of Bt85 billion back to the government’s pledging scheme.
The government has spent Bt280 billion for pledging during the past year. It will spend another Bt260 billion for the upcoming pledging project for agricultural goods.
Thailand is negotiating G2G contracts with the Philippines and Indonesia after signing MoUs.
Pranee Siriphand, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said that besides the G2G agreements already made with the four countries, the department was negotiating with other nations on the sale of rice in the remaining stocks next year.
She said the government could not provide exact figures or details of these G2G deals to the public. Doing so could affect these trade partners’ food-security policies and thus the Kingdom’s relationships with them.
“The Thai government has really gained money from the G2G deals. It is an optimum price for both seller and buyer, but we cannot tell the public,” Pranee said.
She called on the public to understand the necessity of secret G2G contracts to protect Thailand’s rice-trading opportunities in the future.
The department reported that Thailand had many MoUs for selling rice.
For instance, with the Philippines it has three-year contracts for a total rice trading volume not larger than 1 million tonnes, with Bangladesh 300,000 tonnes, and Ivory Coast 240,000 tonnes.