World economic slump pulls down Thailand's food exports

BANGKOK, October 9 (TNA) - The ongoing global economic slowdown, especially in Europe and the United States, has pulled down Thailand's food exports, with the total value of Thai food exports rising by only 1.7 per cent to 665.7 billion baht during the first eight months of this year. Visit Limprana, head of the Food Processing Industry Club under the Federation of Thai Industries or FTI, acknowledged on Monday that the country's food exports had dropped by 10.4 per cent in major markets, 5 per cent in the United States, 11.9 per cent in the European Union or EU and 9.8 per cent each in Africa and the Middle East, caused mainly by a fall in Thai rice exports, followed by those of processed fruits, frozen/processed prawns and fresh/processed vegetables, although Thai food exports to China and South Korean had grown well by 28.8 per cent and 24.9 per cent respectively during the January-August 2012 period. Visit said even though the value of Thai food exports in the third quarter of this year (July to September) is estimated at 253.13 billion baht, a further drop by 0.8 per cent, he believes that the country's overall food exports in the last quarter of this year should recover by 4 per cent to 240.52 billion baht, compared with those in the same period of last year. According to the head of Thailand's Food Processing Industry Club, the growth expectation of the country's total food export value has, thus, been lowered to 1.6 per cent, worth some 980 billion baht, on average this year. Meanwhile, local rice exporters who are concerned that Thai fragrant jasmine rice is facing more competition from cheaper rice of neighboring countries have suggested that Thailand speed up further improving the varieties of locally-grown fragrant rice to cope with the growing challenge. (TNA)