NONTHABURI, Nov 5 (TNA) – The rice price situation is likely to improve thanks to many positive factors including weaker baht, country reopening and receding floods, according to the Department of Internal Trade.
Wattanasak Sur-iam, director-general of the department, said the declining prices of rice were caused by many reasons such as lower external demand, falling local consumption and the recent flooding that resulted from storms and affected rice quality.
He said orders for Thai rice were increasing for export in the second half of this year and weaker baht made the prices of Thai rice competitive. Besides, country reopening was raising local rice consumption, floods were receding and the Commerce Ministry was solving rice prices, Mr. Wattanasak said. Therefore, he believed paddy rice prices would go up.
Meanwhile, Mallika Boonmeetrakool Mahasook, advisor to the commerce minister, said the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives would pay the first installment of rice price compensation to rice growers on Nov 9. (TNA)
