Thailand remains world’s second biggest rice exporter

Thailand's rice exports in the first five months of 2024 increased 16.5% year-on-year to nearly 4.06 million tonnes worth THB94.6 billion ($2.6 billion), but exports in the third quarter are expected to drop as compared to the first half of 2024, said president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA) Charoen Laothamatas.

In May, however, he said that rice exports dropped 29.3%, to 659,566 tonnes, worth about 16.1 billion THB, mainly due to a decrease in orders for white and parboiled rice.

Thailand’s main markets for white rice remained the Philippines, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Angola, Malaysia, Cameroon and Mozambique, while major markets for parboiled rice are South Africa and Benin.

The main markets for Thai Hom Mali fragrant rice are the US, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, mainland China and Australia. Exports in May increased 7.4% to 109,218 tonnes, compared to April.

Charoen said that the prices of Thai rice are comparatively much higher than that produced by India, Vietnam and Pakistan, adding that this price difference has prompted the Philippines and Indonesia to increase rice imports from Vietnam.

India remained the world’s largest rice exporter in the first five months of this year, with 7.20 million tonnes, a 25.4% drop, followed by Thailand with 4.06 million tonnes, an increase of 16.5% year on year; Vietnam with 4.03 million tonnes, an 11.2% increase; Pakistan with 3.02 million tonnes, up 72.5%; and the US with 1.5 million tonnes, up 66.7%.

The top five importers of Thai rice in the first five months were Indonesia with 914,760 tonnes, up 96.6%; Iraq with 363,438 tonnes, down 38.7%; the US with 344,873 tonnes, up 15.8%; the Philippines with 280,522 tonnes, up 362.1%; and and South Africa, 229,369 tonnes, down 36.9%.