Thailand seeks rice pact with GCC
Thailand, the world’s largest rice producing country, will send a mission to the GCC in the coming month to strenghten food security cooperation.
Officials will visit the UAE and Bahrain to start talks on shipping 1 million tonnes of rice each year to the GCC region.
Thailand looks to sell off 5 million tonnes of rice it bought from farmers at subsidised prices under the country’s rice pledging scheme via government-to-government contracts. These would include a clause for guaranteed annual supply.
This strategy is also aimed at preventing the perceived problem of foreign investors buying up land in Thailand to raise rice. There have been suggestions that GCC countries could buy or lease rice silos with stockpile instead of asking for land to raise their own crop.
Thailand also wants to enter government-to-government agreements for shipping rice to other Middle Eastern countries as well as African nations, the commerce ministry said in a statement.
Apart from the GCC, Thailand will this year ship about 2 million tonnes of rice to China, 1 million tonnes to Indonesia, 500,000 tonnes to Bangladesh and 250,000 tonnes to Ivory Coast.
With all these deals factored in, the country’s total rise exports would reach between 8.5 million and 9 million tonnes this year.
Meanwhile, Khalil bin Abdullah Al Khonji, Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called upon the GCC countries to explore ways to strengthen their food security system and urged them to derive a system in which the supply chain is not affected in any situation, according to the Oman Daily Observer.
He suggested rice producing countries including Thailand to store rice in the GCC and export them to African or other countries.
“By letting them stock food grain in the GCC countries, we can manage the food security to a large extent,” Al Khonji said.
He added that investment into the food sector outside the GCC countries needs to be reconsidered in the wake of the current global economic volatility and political developments that may pose a major threat to the Gulf food security.
Thailand, the world's largest rice producing country, will send a mission to the GCC in the coming month to strenghten food security cooperation. Officials will visit the UAE and Bahrain to start talks on shipping 1 million tonnes of rice each year to the GCC region. Thailand looks to sell off 5 million tonnes of rice it bought from farmers at subsidised prices under the country's rice pledging scheme via government-to-government contracts. These would include a clause for guaranteed annual supply. This strategy is also aimed at preventing the perceived problem of foreign investors buying up land in Thailand to...
Thailand, the world’s largest rice producing country, will send a mission to the GCC in the coming month to strenghten food security cooperation.
Officials will visit the UAE and Bahrain to start talks on shipping 1 million tonnes of rice each year to the GCC region.
Thailand looks to sell off 5 million tonnes of rice it bought from farmers at subsidised prices under the country’s rice pledging scheme via government-to-government contracts. These would include a clause for guaranteed annual supply.
This strategy is also aimed at preventing the perceived problem of foreign investors buying up land in Thailand to raise rice. There have been suggestions that GCC countries could buy or lease rice silos with stockpile instead of asking for land to raise their own crop.
Thailand also wants to enter government-to-government agreements for shipping rice to other Middle Eastern countries as well as African nations, the commerce ministry said in a statement.
Apart from the GCC, Thailand will this year ship about 2 million tonnes of rice to China, 1 million tonnes to Indonesia, 500,000 tonnes to Bangladesh and 250,000 tonnes to Ivory Coast.
With all these deals factored in, the country’s total rise exports would reach between 8.5 million and 9 million tonnes this year.
Meanwhile, Khalil bin Abdullah Al Khonji, Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called upon the GCC countries to explore ways to strengthen their food security system and urged them to derive a system in which the supply chain is not affected in any situation, according to the Oman Daily Observer.
He suggested rice producing countries including Thailand to store rice in the GCC and export them to African or other countries.
“By letting them stock food grain in the GCC countries, we can manage the food security to a large extent,” Al Khonji said.
He added that investment into the food sector outside the GCC countries needs to be reconsidered in the wake of the current global economic volatility and political developments that may pose a major threat to the Gulf food security.
