The Commerce Ministry expects rice sales through government-to-government channels will increase dramatically to 700,000-800,000 tonnes this year.

The amount will help drive rice shipments above nine million tonnes as forecast while raising the ministry's exports after last year when it did not sell a single grain of rice.

Manat Soiploy, director-general of the ministry's Foreign Trade Department, said several governments from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have contacted the ministry recently about purchasing plans to beef up their food security.

There are buying offers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines that will add up to government-to-government rice deals of more than 700,000 tonnes, he said.

He said Thai rice would benefit from falling rice supplies in many major producing countries, especially China, due to drought, while India has banned the export of non-basmati rice.

The strong market is likely to prop up export prices. Mr Manat expects the price of 5% grade white rice may increase significantly to about US$600 a tonne due to high demand.

Thailand plans to ship out 9-9.5 million tonnes of rice this year to fetch income of up to $5.6 billion, up from 9.05 million tonnes worth $5.34 billion last year.

Source: Bangkok Post