Thailand plans to slash rice production; aims to reduce glut, boost prices

Bangkok

THAILAND, the world's biggest rice exporter, plans to cut production to reduce a local surplus and boost prices, complementing a drive by the government to sell record stockpiles that are clogging warehouses nationwide.

Rough-rice output may be cut to 33.73 million tonnes by 2016-2017, down from an average of 35.11 million tonnes over the past six years, according to Apichart Pongsrihadulchai, vice-farm-minister. Growers will be encouraged with incentives including soft loans to shift from rice to sugar cane or to mixed farming with livestock, Mr Apichart said.