Source: Bangkok Post
10/02/2012 - India's rice exports will reach 4 million tonnes next month, putting even more pressure on Thailand to manage the government's paddy mortgage scheme and stockpiles.

Rajen Sundaresan, executive director of the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) in New Delhi, said when his country lifted the ban on shipments of non-basmati rice last Feburary, exporters were told they could ship a total of 2 million tonnes.

But after exporters shipped 2.4 million tonnes, the Indian government approved another 2 million tonnes on top of the original amount, and the full quota of 4 million tonnes is expected to be met by March 31.

The amount of rice shipped by India to the world market is far greater than the projection for Thai rice exporters.

And Mr Sundaresan said the Indian government is poised to approve yet another 2 million tonnes for export.

This is thanks to improved paddy projections for the year ending Sept 30, with a yield of 89 million tonnes expected, up from 80 million tonnes in the previous crop year.

Good weather, better production and harvesting technologies and attractive prices are credited, said Mr Sundaresan.

Regarding the trend in global rice prices, he anticipates a gradual rise of another 5-10% this year due to natural disasters and growing populations.

"It will not be a big jump due to the good production methods and greater stockpiles of Indian rice," he said.

Thailand is a major competitor for India's non-basmati rice, but India is confident of its competitive price.

India's main markets for non-basmati rice are Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nepal _ the same markets for Thai white rice. The AIREA is also lobbying Indonesia and Malaysia to buy more Indian rice.

Mr Sundaresan said his country sells basmati rice to Iran but has had problems receiving payment, so shipments to that market may slow down.

Arrangements could be made to trade Indian rice for Iranian oil, he said.

Suniyom Taprab, a senior researcher in the Agriculture Ministry's Rice Department, said the cultivation areas of Thailand's main crop paddy this year is 61.95 million rai, up by 0.28%.

The average yield is 329 kilogrammes per rai, down by 0.09% from last year.

This means the main crop will come in at 20 million tonnes, down from 23 million tonnes last year.

However, the lower yield will be offset by the second crop on 16.69 million rai, up by 3.66%, bringing the total to 11.11 million tonnes of paddy, up by 49.5%.

Mr Sundaresan was in Thailand to organise the International Sugar, Rice, Maize & Agriculture Expo Asia 2012, to be held at Impact Muang Thong Thani from Aug 29-31.