Thailand's commerce minister and rice exporters will visit African countries next month in a bid to secure rice deals, a senior official said on Monday.

"It's a roadshow that includes trade and investment in Africa and, of course, rice will be the main issue we'll talk about," said Apiradi Tantraporn, director general of the foreign trade department at the ministry

Thai delegates will visit Nigeria, the biggest buyer of Thai rice in Africa, expecting to seal rice deals with Nigerian importers, she said.

Apiradi declined to give further details on whether deals would be done through government channels.

In 2008, Nigeria imported 844,322 tonnes of Thai rice, up from 327,025 tonnes the previous year, according to Commerce Ministry data.

Exporters said they did not expect to see any big rice deal during the visit as most African countries were well stocked and unlikely to buy huge amounts of rice in the near future.

"Apart from the fact they have ample stocks, I'm afraid African buyers could wait to buy cheaper rice from India, expecting New Delhi to resume exports in the second half of this year," one exporter said.

India, which vies with Vietnam to be the world's second biggest rice exporter after Thailand, has banned exports since late 2007 in order to build up stocks for domestic food security.

Thailand exported 10 million tonnes in 2008, of which around 2 million tonnes was sold to Africa.

Source: Reuters