Bright prospect for Thai organic farm products in US

BANGKOK, March 12 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce says that Thai organic farm products, particularly high quality Hom Mali organice grains, have a bright prospect in the United States. Caretaker Commerce Minister Chutima Bunyapraphasara made the remarks on March 11, after returning home from leading a team of her ministry's senior executives to participate in a grand trade fair, the Natural Product Expo West 2019, in the United States during March 4-9, aimed to expand Thailand's international trade networks and to explore more market opportunities for the country's exports of organic farm products. "I've observed that Thai organic farm products, especially Hom Mali organic rice, have high potential and promising prospect in the US market", Chutima told journalists. The caretaker commerce minister estimated that purchase orders of Thai organic farm products, particularly Hom Mali organic rice, at the US trade fair and from US importers over the next one year should, thus, exceed 145 billion baht. According to the caretaker minister, Thailand's exports of rice and organic rice products to the US market during January-November 2018 stood up to 8.7 million US dollars, out of Washington's total import value of the products during the same period at about 22.57 million US dollars. The caretaker minister acknowledged that the United States has become Thailand's second largest import market of organic rice products, after India, with Thai organic rice now gaining the market share of about 38.86 per cent in the US market and exports to the US market expected to further increase by 10 per cent year-on-year in 2019. Meanwhile, Banjongjitt Angsusingh, Director-General of the ministry's Department of International Trade Promotion, reported that the United States is now the world's top import market of organic farm products, totally worth about 47 billion US dollars annually, with a further growing trend in the coming years, thanks to the country's health-conscious consumers. The senior official stated that in 2018 alone, the United States' imports of natural and organic products totally reached 2 billion US dollars, a 6 per cent year-on-year increase, including 39 per cent of natural & organic food products, 31 per cent of functional food products, 21 per cent of supplements and 9 per cent of natural living products, with consumers in the groups of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (Millennial) and Gen Z (iGen) being the major purchasers of the products through domestic modern retail and online sale networks. (TNA)