Bangkok, March 23 - Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, is expected to produce 23.5 million tonnes of paddy rice from its 2009/10 main crop, down slightly from last year, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Monday.
The drop in output from 23.8 million tonnes of paddy rice produced in the 2008/09 (May-November) crop was due to farmers planting less in the face of lower prices, said Apichart Jongsakul, Secretary General of the Office of Agricultural Economy.
Thailand, the world's biggest rubber producer, is also expected to produce 3.2 million tonnes of rubber in 2009, up from 3.1 million tonnes in 2008, he told Reuters in an interview.
The country, one of Asia's top sugar exporters, was also expected to produce 76 million tonnes of sugar cane from the 2009/10 crop (October-April), up from around 72 million tonnes in the previous crop, he said.