BANGKOK, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Thai rice exporters are working with farmers to promote production of a new strain of rice to help raise Thai rice competitiveness in the world market.
Charoen Laothamatas, president of Thai Rice Exporters Association, told Xinhua that Thailand needs to produce what the market wants, "not what we want to produce."
He said Thai farmers currently produce mostly hard-texture rice, which is favored by consumers in the Middle East and India.
As producing more of soft-texture rice could help sell higher volume to countries such as China, Charoen said the project of promoting soft-texture rice with Thai farmers will start in August this year in central region of the country, which is the key rice-growing region with the best irrigated land.
"This is a pilot project," he said, adding that he expected the production will be about 4,000-5,000 tons of soft-texture rice from the initial phase.
The project will be funded by Thai Rice Exporters Association.
