Rice price may spike next year due to decrease in production
Speaking after a meeting with the rice price guarantee committee, the Department of Internal Trade’s director-general Wichai Phochanakit revealed on Wednesday (November 27) that 90 per cent of the rice grown in crop year 2019/2020 had been harvested, but the volume had decreased drastically due to drought and floods.
“In-season paddy rice volume decreased from 27 million tonnes to 24 million tonnes, while off-season paddy rice also went down from 8 million tonnes to 3.5 million tones,” he said. “This means that we will have only 16-17 million tonnes of milled rice. Since 8 million will be earmarked for export, only 9-10 million tonnes will be left for domestic consumption. This will certainly drive up the price of milled rice next year.”
Wichai added that the committee has considered paying rice farmers the difference between the reference price and guaranteed price as follows: Unmilled round shaped rice’s reference price is Bt7,446.61 per tonne, lower than guaranteed price of Bt10,000 per tonne, a difference of Bt2,553.39 per tonne; unmilled Hom Pathum Thani rice’s reference price is Bt9,404.32 per tonne, lower than guaranteed price of Bt11,000 per tonne, a difference of Bt1,595.63 per tonne.
Meanwhile, the rice varietals that require no difference payment are: unmilled Hom Mali rice (reference price Bt15,286.95/tonne, guaranteed price Bt15,000 per tonne), and unmilled sticky rice (reference price Bt16,186.25/tonne, guaranteed price Bt12,000/tonne).