Thailand's Hom Mali rice strain has become the world's champion for "best taste" rice for the second consecutive year and the fifth time since 2009, beating the competing fragrant rice strains of neighboring Cambodia and Vietnam.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn announced that the Thai fragrant rice strain maintained its championship as the "best taste" rice at the World’s Best Rice Contest 2017, held in Macau on November 8.
Apiradi said that the Rice Trader, a world-leading trade publication dedicated to in-depth analysis of the global rice industry, has organized the international rice contest for nine times, during which Thailand's Hom Mali rice strain won the championship in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2017.
Apiradi acknowledged the five-time championship could show that the Thai fragrant rice is the "best taste" rice in the world and her ministry will move forward, through strict measures, to maintain and sustain the high quality and standard of the Thai Hom Mali rice in the long run, while also promoting and creating confidence in the Thai fragrant rice globally.
To maintain and sustain the high quality and standard of the Thai Hom Mali rice, the minister explained that her ministry will keep on providing knowledge and information to local farmers on how to properly grow and when to appropriately harvest the high-quality rice.
For marketing channels internationally, the minister revealed that her ministry plans to promote the Thai fragrant rice through both normal and online strategies, as well as roadshows and rice trade fairs to be organized in either targeted foreign markets, including Hong Kong, China, Singapore and the United States, or in the domestic market.
The minister reported that Thailand's exports of Hom Mali rice reached about 1.19 million tons during the first nine months of this year, a 12.81 per cent year-on-year increase, and were priced about US$940 million per ton, from US$650-700 million per ton during the corresponding period of last year.
According to the minister, major markets for Thailand's Hom Mali rice exports include the United States, China and Hong Kong, while the produce of the Thai fragrant rice is higher during the current 2016/2017 harvest year, thanks to continual downpours since the Songkran Festival in April and mostly-intact rice fields that were unaffected by this year's floods in some low-lying areas.
Past winners of the contest include:
Rice Tasting 2016 Winner: Thai Hom Mali.
Rice Tasting 2015 Winner: U.S. Calrose.
Rice Tasting 2014 Joint Winners: Thai Hom Mali and Cambodia Jasmine.
Rice Tasting 2013 Joint Winners: Cambodia Jasmine – Cambodia and California Calrose – U.S.
Rice Tasting 2012 Winner: Cambodia Jasmine - Cambodia
Rice Tasting 2011 Winner: Paw Son Rice - Myanmar
Rice Tasting 2010 Winner: Thai Jasmine Rice
Rice Tasting 2009 Winners: Thai Jasmine Rice
Source : Thai News Agency
