Thai rice exporter C.P. Intertrade Co, Ltd said on Thursday it expected its rice exports to rise at least half this year due to strong demand from Africa. The company, wholly owned by Charoen Pokphand Group (C.P. Group), Thailand's largest business conglomerate, exported 300,000 tonnes of rice last year and sold around 100,000 tonnes domestically.
"We aim to export 450,000-500,000 tonnes of rice this year, or up around 50-60 percent," company president Sumeth Laomoraphorn told Reuters. C.P. expected to sell more to Africa, which accounts for 40 percent of its exports and where an expanding population was increasing demand, he said. It was seeking to join local companies to set up trading firms in Africa to help boost sales, he said.
"There's a great potential for rice exports to African countries and we need to improve our distribution system," he said. It planned to sell more to other export markets, including North America, China and the Middle East, he said. C.P. has a rice trading firm in Nigeria, the world's biggest buyer of parboiled rice, buying 1.5-2.0 million tonnes per year.
Its rice exports would double to one million tonnes in 2009, accounting for 15 percent of Thailand's annual rice exports, as C.P. planned to build a new rice mill with an annual production capacity of one million tonnes, its biggest, Sumeth said. Its output would serve growing overseas demand, he said. Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, exported 7.5 million tonnes in 2006 and aims to sell up to 8.5 million tonnes this year.
C.P. was developing a new species of rice which would withstand disease and drought better, yield more and cut production costs, he said. "We are upgrading our white rice and fragrant rice and expect to get a new species within a few years," he said.
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