Thailand's rice market in turmoil, may miss golden opportunity without India

Thailand's domestic milled rice prices rose nearly 20% last week to 21,000 baht ($597) per tonne, from around 17,000 baht a few weeks earlier.

Thai rice market facing difficulties. (Source: Industry and Trade Newspaper)

This development pushed the export price of Thailand's benchmark 5% broken white rice to $610 per tonne, reflecting the rise in global rice prices to an 11-year high.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the country has never had a shortage of rice because of its large annual surplus. But this year, the rice market is in chaos as exporters are unable to offer any prices due to concerns about price fluctuations and supply uncertainty.

India announced a ban on rice exports on July 20. The ban has raised concerns about dwindling stocks and encouraged major rice importers to seek supplies from other major exporters, including Thailand and Vietnam.

Thailand - the world's second-largest rice exporter - typically produces around 20 million tonnes of milled rice. Half of that is consumed domestically, the other half is typically exported.

Although the Thai government has no plans to limit rice exports, exporters are reluctant to sell due to uncertain supply.

The hoarding could push rice prices in the world’s second-largest exporter to uncompetitive levels, missing out on a golden opportunity to boost exports as Indian rice is absent from the international market.

There are no exact production estimates yet, but the Thai Ministry of Agriculture only forecasts that Thailand's 2023/2024 crop year (November 2023-October 2024) will be lower than expected.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/thi-truong-gao-thai-lan-hon-loan-co-the-bo-lo-co-hoi-vang-khi-vang-an-do-238725.html