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.