Thailand will regain its position as the world's number one exporter of parboiled rice from India within the next two years, the Commerce Ministry claimed yesterday - even as the government pushed forward with its rice-pledging scheme.

As part of its plans to boost rice exports, Commerce Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal will lead a Thai delegation to six targeted countries next week. The delegation will first visit Indonesia and Malaysia, followed by the Philippines, China, Togo and Iran, where it will discuss government-to-government contracts for Thai rice with its counterparts.

Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the government would extend efforts to increase exports of parboiled rice this year by allowing millers and exporters to purchase paddy rice for parboiled production.

"This should enable Thailand to again become the world's largest exporter of parboiled rice after losing its position to India. This year Thailand will export about 1.5 million tonnes of parboiled rice and increase exports to 2.5 million tonnes next year," said Yanyong.

In 2001, Thailand was the world's top exporter of parboiled rice with between 2 to 2.5 million tonnes, while Indian exports in the same year amounted to 500,000 tonnes.

However, with the launch of the government's rice-pledging scheme, paddy rice was sold under the government's pledging scheme. Exporters and millers were unable compete with the high price the government offered farmers, and the country duly lost its position as the top exporter of parboiled rice. Last year, Thailand shipped about 2.1 million tonnes of parboiled rice, while India exported more than 2.3 million tonnes.

Under the pledging process, all rice entered into the pledge must be milled - a process, which stops it from being turned into parboiled rice.

Yanyong said that the government would also adjust its current production methods - which include polishing paddy rice - so that it could sell more paddy to millers and exporters to be turned into parboiled rice for this and next year's exports.

Polishing rice is not part of the parboiled rice production process.

Parboiled rice exports sell well above white rice exports by as much as US$30 to $50 (Bt935-1,558) per tonne. According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, as of July 3, the price of white rice was $524 per tonne, while parboiled rice was selling at $543 per tonne. The price of India's parboiled rice was quoted at $430 a tonne. Nivatthamrong said consumption of parboiled rice was becoming increasingly popular among emerging economies in Africa, as well as the Middle East. He said countries targeted for exports of Thai parboiled rice included Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa and Nigeria.

Yanyong added that from a total of 2.69 million tonnes of paddy, expected to enter to the pledging scheme between now to this September, about half, or 1.3-1.5 million tonnes, would be sold to millers and exporters for parboiled rice production. The other 50 percent would be traded normally on the market.

While the government has plans to sell paddy rice at the market price, critics have said the price should be slightly lower to help private exporters. Only a handful of countries have the capacity to export parboiled rice in large quantities - Thailand, India, Brazil, and the United States.

However, Thailand's technological standards for producing parboiled rice have ensured that has become widely accepted in consumer countries, due to its quality. Among a total of 2,000 millers in Thailand, about 10 percent of these can produce parboiled rice.

Niwet Sritongkim, owner of Petchburi Inter Rice, a parboiled rice production plant, said that his production of parboiled rice had dropped dramatically since the government introduced the rice-pledging scheme. However, he supported the government's plans to release paddy rice to the market, so that millers and exporters with parboiled production capabilities could increase their production.

He added that there was a high demand of parboiled rice on the world market. According to the Commerce Ministry, about 4 million tonnes of parboiled rice is traded on global markets every year.

Source: The Nation