Thailand changes rice policy to increase competitiveness?

The Thai government is considering to change policy of rice, focusing on marketing, reducing production cost and researching new varieties of rice.

According to Vietnam Trade in Thailand, in recent times, the baht continued to appreciate against the dollar and the increase in production costs made Thai rice prices stay high, reducing competitiveness.

At the beginning of August 2020, the FOB price of long-grain white rice 5% broken was traded at $460/tonne, higher by $90 compared to Indian rice.

Facing this situation, the Thai government is considering to change the rice policy, which focuses on marketing, reducing production costs and researching new varieties. This is the central content of the rice production strategy for 2020-24 announced recently by the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand.

The group of rice types will be focused on developing into three segments, including: high-end segment (hom mali rice, flavored rice); mass segment (soft white rice, hard white rice, fried rice, sticky rice and special rice) and niche segment (sticky rice and special rice).

The Ministry of Commerce of Thailand will work with the rice exporters' association to find new partners to expand markets because Thai rice is still interested in by many international partners due to its quality.

In addition, the chief representatives of Thai Trade Agencies in foreign countries are also encouraged to advertise and seek potential markets.

According to the latest forecast in July of the US Department of Agriculture, the world's rice production in 2020 is estimated at 495.2 million tonnes, down 0.3% compared to 2019. World rice consumption in 2020 is estimated at 490.4 million tonnes, up 1.3% compared to 2019.

Recently, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, rice exports of Thailand for 2020 might only reach 6.5 million tonnes, the lowest level in a decade and lower than the forecast of 7.5 million tonnes.

According to experts, Thailand is likely to drop from third to fifth on the list of global rice exporters in the next decade if it did not develop long-term policies to increase its competitiveness for rice item.