Thailand offers $1.29bn loan to jasmine rice farmers
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The new rice harvest season is currently underway in Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, and the Southeast Asian nation expects output of the grain for the 2016/17 production year to come in at 25 million tonnes.
Prices for jasmine rice, Thailand’s highest quality rice, have tumbled to their lowest level in years, leaving the military government scrambling to appease the country’s farmers.
The rice management committee had said on Monday it would offer loans worth $1 billion to jasmine farmers but revised that figure on Tuesday, following an adjustment of the market price of jasmine rice, Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said ■