The Commerce Ministry is confident of Thailand retaining its status as the world's No.1 rice exporter this year, with a goal to ship 9 million tonnes.

Based on statistics from the US Agriculture Department, from January to May 17 the Kingdom exported 2.6 million tonnes of rice, down 40% year-on-year, with a total value of US$1.74 billion (53.67 billion baht), down 30%.

Meanwhile, the US exported 2 million tonnes and Vietnam shipped 1.6 million.

Yanyong Phuangrach, the commerce permanent secretary, brushed aside concern among rice exporters that the government's mortgage policy, which pays 15,000 baht a tonne for white paddy, will cost the country its long-term status.

He insisted that Thailand still holds the top rank and export prices have improved.

Thai rice export prices are averaging $669 a tonne, up 18.19% from $566 in the same period last year.

Mr Yanyong said the latest US estimates show Thailand exporting 7.5 million tonnes of rice in 2012, up from a previous figure of 6.5 million.

The Thai Agriculture and Cooperative Ministry predicts 20 million tonnes of paddy (13.2 million tonnes of rice), split evenly between the government's stock and the private sector. It expects the second crop to have production of 11 million tonnes of paddy (7.2 million tonnes of rice).

Therefore, Thailand would have total rice production exceeding 20 million tonnes.

The ministry is more optimistic, predicting that Thailand will export 8.5 to 9 million tonnes of rice this year with a value of more than 200 billion baht.

Last year, the country shipped a record 10.6 million tonnes of rice worth almost 200 billion baht.

Officials want the price of Thai white rice to rise 15% to $650-700 a tonne and the price of Hom Mali rice to rise 5% to $1,200 a tonne.

Mr Yanyong vowed to release the rice stock without jeopardising domestic paddy prices.

He said the state wants to encourage changes to the rice-trading structure by promoting more large-scale exporters and selling on a government-to-government basis to allow the government to shoulder the risk in trading.

In his view, the mortgage scheme helped raise the domestic paddy price of 5% white rice to 9,500-12,000 baht a tonne, up from 7,700-8,300 baht, and the price of Hom Mali paddy to 14,650-16,000 baht a tonne, up from 12,450-13,500 baht.

Source: Bangkok Post