By Bernama,
Bangkok : Thailand and India are set to finalise ways to accelerate boosting rice output per rai in preparation for the growing global food shortage, the Thailand news agency (TNA) reported Monday.
Speaking after meeting with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Saengsuwan said they both discussed on the global food shortage, particularly that of rice.
Many countries had suspended rice exports while the demand and consumption of the product stays high.
Accordingly, Mingkwan said he and the Indian minister saw a need for rice exporting countries to cooperate to more quickly increase rice output per rai in response to the increasing demand by countries around the world.
The commerce minister said India had suspended rice exports due to high domestic demand although it is the world’s second largest rice growing and exporting country after Thailand.
However, Thailand maintained its readiness to export rice because its rice supply is still sufficient for local consumption and export combined.
He stressed Thailand would not suspend rice exports, particularly as the global food shortage seemed unabated at present because such an action would make the situation worse.
Major rice exporting countries Thailand, India and Vietnam had not yet discussed a common way to determine both export volume and rice prices in the world market.
Whether the issue would be raised for discussion in the future needed to be considered, the minister said.