Thais to gain from Vietnam rice shortage

Thais to gain from Vietnam rice shortage

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand is hoping to capitalize on rice
shortages in Vietnam to boost its exports of the commodity
worldwide this year to around six million tons, government
sources said in reports yesterday.

Thai rice exports in the five months to May reached 2.6
million tons, a 44-percent increase over the same period last
year, the government's Business Economics Department (BED) said
in a report.

The figure was 58 percent of the target for 1995 of 4.5
million tons, the department said, adding that Thailand would
increase exports to important markets such as Hong Kong,
Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.

Deputy Commerce Minister Chaiyot Sasomsub said in the Bangkok
Post daily yesterday that the government had so far this year
received orders for 4.4 million tons and expected the figure to
reach six million tons.

Vietnam has said that it would cut back on rice exports this
year due to an "export rush" that has created huge price surges
for the commodity in the domestic market. Food prices in some
northern provinces are up by 50 percent.

Vietnam's rice exports have reached 980,000 tons since
January, and are expected to top 1.23 million tons for the first
five months, despite the government's call for a slow down.

Vietnam produced 22 million tons of rice in 1994, of which
more than two million tons were sold abroad, mostly to the Middle
East, Africa, Indonesia and South America.