Southeast Asia increases rice exports

Thailand: The southeastern Asian countries will increase their rice exports and according to experts, the prices of the cereal should fall to $400 a ton, according to an announcement on Wednesday in this capital.

Thai food experts said that progress in rice exports emerged from the government decision to withdraw protection to the kingdom’s producers, eliminating direct buys.

That increase also answers to the growth of the Vietnamese exports, which are expected to reach six million tons in 2009 and could be more next year, they said. The experts said that another emerging factor of that trend lies on the increase in Myanmar and Cambodia’s productions.

They expect that the demand in the international market increases and buyers will be encouraged to create reserves for 2010, due to the difficulties found to locate offers in late 2008.

For the first time in several decades, Thailand, the greatest world exporting country, abandons direct buys from farmers to make a turn in the world market’s behavior, when the prices of rice and other produce shot up. If there is not a weather catastrophe or a sudden drought, Thai rice prices will fall to $400 or $300 a ton, the national Exporter Association predicted.

In Southeastern Asia, the region with greater rice production nowadays, supplies should grow considerably by the end of 2009, said the experts. Bangkok, Prensa Latina