"rice"

The Cabinet on Tuesday set aside more than 140 billion baht for rice price guarantee in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

China has registered 93 Thai mills that produce and process rice, Department of Agriculture director-general Pichet Wiriyaphaha said on Wednesday.

The Cabinet approved measures amounting to THB131.6 billion to guarantee income for rice farmers and parallel measures to help rice growers during production year 2021/2022, as proposed by the Commerce Ministry after a decision by the National Rice Policy Committee.

The Thai Rice Growers Association called on the government to immediately reveal the price of the first installment of insured rice and pay farmers the money after promises were made that this would be done by October 15.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association has voiced concerns about an oversupply of jasmine rice in local markets now that many orders from the US and Europe have been cancelled due to high freight costs.

The export of rice returned to positive numbers for three consecutive months since June this year thanks to higher production volume and weak baht. The 6-million-tonne export target should be achieved in 2021, the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) said on Thursday.

A major Thai rice exporter has recently signed a contract with Iraqi importers to supply 44,000 tonnes of 100 per cent white rice.

The weakening baht will help Thailand meet its target of exporting 6 million tonnes of rice this year, though it has only shipped 2.59 million tonnes in the first seven months.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on August 13 released a selection of reassuring results of nearly a decade and a half of research on a hybrid rice variety found to be more resilient to climate change and produce significantly better yields than conventional cultivars.

A drop in prices and a bigger, better harvest is expected to boost the export of Thai rice to Malaysia, the Department of Foreign Trade said this week.

Thai exporters are currently preparing to export 44,000 tonnes of 100 per cent white rice to Iraq for the first time in seven years after Baghdad had suspended the import of Thai rice.

Thailand managed to export only 2.2 million tonnes of rice in the first half of the year, down 21.03 per cent from the same period last year.