Thailand to work out rice innovation strategies

BANGKOK, May 4 (TNA) - Thailand will soon work out new strategies on the promotion of the national rice industry, under which more value-added, innovative rice products will be developed. Duangporn Rodphaya, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, told journalists that the new strategies will be discussed at a meeting of the Thai Institute of Rice Innovations' Board, to be chaired by Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn in Bangkok later this month. Under the strategies, Duangporn said, Thai rice will be further developed from a traditional staple food product to more innovative food and non-food products produced by local industrialists. According to the senior Thai official, the new strategies are aimed to also help boost the sale of Thai rice domestically and globally. (TNA)