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Thailand has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh to enable exports of up to one million tonnes of rice each year until 2021.
Thai Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn and Bangladeshi Food Minister Qamrul Islam inked the agreement on Thursday.
The rice price will be fixed after negotiations between the two countries, considering the international market price, the ministers said. The signing was held just two weeks after an official Thai delegation left Dhaka with no agreement on the Thai rice price offer, as Bangladesh was getting rice at a much cheaper rate from other international sources. 
Bangladesh has signed a deal with Vietnam for rice at US$470 (Bt15,630) a tonne, and nearly one million tonnes of Vietnamese rice have already reached Chittagong port. – The Daily Star

MALEE MISSES TARGET

Malee Group has missed its target for second-quarter operating performance, but the company says it regards that as a short-term aberration and is confident it will be back on track for growth under a long-term strategy.
Roongchat Boonyarat, chief operating officer, said the group recorded sales of Bt1.37 billion, a decrease of 21 per cent from the same quarter of last year due to two main reasons. The first was a decline in domestic sales due to a slowdown in domestic spending that affected the overall market and also the fruit juice market. 
Malee also reduced its sell-in to manage its inventory to prepare for a packaging launch scheduled for this quarter, plus there was a shortage of raw materials for canned fruit production following unseasonably low crop yields. 
The second reason was lower sales for Malee’s contract manufacturing business after the company implemented new preventive measures to control the quality of coconut water throughout the supply chain.