Thais consume less rice

BANGKOK, December 21 (TNA) - A latest research has found that Thai people consume less rice, to lower than 100 kilograms per head per year. Niphon Puapongsakorn, a senior researcher at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), told journalists on Monday that the latest TDRI research on rice consumption has discovered that the amount of rice consumption by Thai people has slightly changed so far, but in the long run, the amount of rice consumption by Thai people is likely to further drop from the current level of 100-104 kilograms per head per year. Niphon estimated that people in urban areas should even consume less rice than 90 kilograms per head per year over the next decade when they would not work hard. Niphon noted that Thai households have consumed about 7 million tons of rice annually. Meanwhile, Somkiat Makhayathorn, President of the Thai Rice Packers Association, projected that the consumption of Hom Mali or fragrant rice by Thai people should increase next year when significantly lower prices and government-to-government rice deals should be helpful at a certain extent. Somkiat foresaw that the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of this year would result in more labour movements in the region and have impacts on domestic rice consumption. Somkiat predicted that local industrial demand for rice should increase and if the costs of rice production dropped, Thai rice should have a bright prospect on both domestic and oversea markets. (TNA)