Rice group eyes record exports
THE THAI Rice Association is confident that exports of the staple will this year come in at 11 million tonnes, which would mark a record high for overseas shipments.
The optimism is based on strong demand in the market and the government’s barn rice-pledging programme that has helped to maintain prices, the association’s president, Pol Lt Charoen Laothamatas, said yesterday.
“We are confident that rice exports this year will show growth both in terms of volume and value, as the demand for Thai rice has been strong,” Charoen said after taking rice importers from Hong Kong on a tour of a Hom Mali rice field in Ubon Ratchathani province yesterday.
“Prices have shown double-digit growth from last year, especially for Hom Mali rice that has been selling for between US$800 and US$860 per tonne this year, up US$200 per tonne from last year, when the export price was US$600 per tone.”
He said Thailand exports more than 200,000 tonnes of Hom Mali rice to Hong Kong a year, with the country’s share of the Hom Mali market in the Chinese territory reaching 70 per cent. Four years ago, Thailand’s share was 40 per cent.
“Thailand’s market share for Hom Mali rice in Hong Kong had been as high as 90 per cent 10 years ago, but then Thailand had some policies that impacted the country’s rice production,” Charoen said.
“We lost market share, falling to as low as 40 per cent until 2014, when Thailand’s rice policy changed. These changes led to exports of Thai Hom Mali to Hong Kong rising to 70 per cent. We expect that to increase to 75 per cent next year.”
Kenneth Chan, chairman of the Rice Merchants’ Association of Hong Kong, said after visit the visit to the rice field yesterday that Thai Hom Mali rice was popular in Hong Kong. In the first nine months of this year Hong Kong imports of Thai Hom Mali rice totalled 155,000 tonnes.
He expects that to grow to 200,000 tonnes this year, translating into a 70 per cent share of the total rice market in Hong Kong, which stands at about 320,000 tonnes a year.
In the Hong Kong market for Hom Mali rice, Thailand is followed by Vietnam, which has a market share of about 17 per cent, Chan said.
Charoen said the association also has tried to expand the export market with new destinations such as in the Middle East, including Iran and Iraq, along with Latin America and Africa.
They are considered challenging markets, he said.
