Thailand will focus more on parboiled rice after failing to win a tender to supply 800,000 tonnes of white rice to the Philippines.

"Thailand still has a chance to ship more parboiled rice as its prices are cheaper than those of India," said Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of Thai Rice Exporters Association.

The free-on-board (FOB) price of Thai parboiled rice is now quoted at US$405 a tonne, while Indian parboiled rice fetches $420 a tonne.

In the first two months of this year, Thailand exported 322,441 tonnes of parboiled rice, up 70.98% over 188,574 tonnes from a year earlier.

Thailand shipped 1.65 million tonnes of parboiled rice last year, with export value amounting to 26.42 billion baht. Main markets included Benin, Nigeria and South Africa.

Vichai Sriparsert, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said high demand for parboiled rice should particularly come from Nigeria, which normally buys 3 million tonnes a year.

"Most traders started buying parboiled rice last September as they speculate that Nigeria will this year cut its import tariff from 110%," he said.

Thailand lost the fight to Vietnam for the latest contract to supply 800,000 tonnes of 15% broken well-milled white rice to Philippines which opened tender last week. The tender is likely to be awarded to Vietnam's Vinafood II, which submitted the lowest bid.

Vinafood II offered to supply rice in four separate batches of 200,000 tonnes from May to August at an average price of $438.69 per tonne, according to the Philippines National Food Authority.

The US Department of Agriculture expects Vietnam to export 7.5 million tonnes of rice this year, up about 10% from an estimated 6.8 million tonnes last year.

Chockchai Sethiwan, executive director of Thai Hua (2511) Co, the only Thai firm that participated in the tender held by the Philippines, said Vinafood II's offered bid was more than $40 lower than his company's.

Mr Chookiat said Thai white rice prices are expected to stay relatively low after the failure to win the Philippines contract. The FOB price of 5% white rice has weakened to $380-$385 a tonne from $396 on April 9.

"The buyers' market is now in a wait-and-see position," he said. "Many traders still speculate that Thai rice prices may drop further given hasty attempts by the government to dispose of its rice to raise funds to pay farmers."

About 1.4 million tonnes of Thai rice were shipped to overseas in the first two months this year up 40% year on year.

Thailand's rice export is set to rise 13.5% to 7.5 million tonnes from 6.61 million last year while parboiled rice shipments are estimated to reach 2 million tonnes.

Source: Bangkok Post