"Last year was the first time Thailand's hom mali rice shipments to Hong Kong exceeded 200,000 tonnes since 2007, when 202,858 tonnes were shipped," he said. Hong Kong is the third-largest rice export market for Thai hom mali rice, after China and the US. As of Feb 6, Thailand had shipped over 1 million tonnes of milled rice with prices of $422-470 a tonne. But rice exporters have recently voiced concerns about the strong baht, saying earlier projections of 9.5 million tonnes may be hard to achieve. The Agriculture Ministry forecasts rice production for the 2018 season of 30 million tonnes of paddy rice and 22-23 million tonnes of milled rice, similar to last season.

Source: Bangkok Post February 16, 2018 19:52 UTC