Thailand risks dropping to No.5 in rice exports over the next decade if the country remains complacent and does not develop a long-term rice strategy for seeds and competitiveness, warns the Thai Rice Exporters Association. He said alternating drought and flood disasters have affected Thailand's rice production and a lack of accurate data on rice has made it hard to devise effective marketing plans. "For long-term strategies, related authorities are being urged to speed up their consideration of the entire supply chain in the rice industry, be it seed development, rice millers, paddy rice traders, seed manufacturers and traders, packed rice producers, or rice exporters," said Mr Charoen. He said other rice producers such as China have spent a lot of money on R&D to raise their rice yield. For the period, Thailand was the world's third largest rice exporter, trailing India and Vietnam, which shipped 4.53 million tonnes and 4.04 million tonnes, respectively.

Source: Bangkok Post July 22, 2020 23:15 UTC