Rice production in Thailand will probably shrink to a five-year low as drought hurts yields and farmers curb planting after the end of a subsidy program, according to the Thai Rice Packers Association.
Output in the largest shipper after India may drop 10 percent to about 34 million metric tons in 2014-2015, said Somkiat Makcayathorn, the group’s president. That would be the lowest level since 2009-2010, when the Southeast Asian nation produced 32.4 million tons, according to data from the Office of Agricultural Economics, the Bangkok-based state forecaster.
While a smaller harvest would curb farm incomes, a decline in supply may ease the challenge faced by the country’s military junta as it seeks to sell off record stockpiles that built up under the now-defunct subsidy program. Dry weather may also hurt rice output in India this season, according to the Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization, which forecasts the first contraction in global stockpiles in a decade.
“Production has been affected by both drought and the lack of a price subsidy,” Somkiat said in a phone interview in Bangkok on July 21. “The prospect of a production decline provides an opportunity for the junta to release stockpiles.”
Drought spread across 49 of Thailand’s 77 provinces since September, with rainfall in May 31 percent below the 30-year average, according to government data. Yields may decline 20 percent to 50 percent because of below-normal rain and inadequate water supplies, according to a Bloomberg survey of 10 farmers in the biggest growing provinces.