The Thai rice sector worries tariffs unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump could slash demand for Thai rice in its most valuable foreign market and create turmoil in an export industry worth billions of dollars. - REUTERS
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00:00Tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump may pile pain on Thailand's ailing rice sector valued at billions of dollars.
00:10Things were already bad this year after rice prices crashed when India resumed exports in September.
00:17Now Thailand, the world's second largest exporter of rice, faces a 36% tariff on goods.
00:24Those kick in unless talks with Washington are successful before Trump's tariff moratorium ends in July.
00:31Rice farmer Deng Dong-sing, who sells her harvest at a rice mill in central Thailand, worries about her income which provides for a family of nine.
00:41The problem is that the price of rice is very low, while other costs such as fertilizer and farmland rent are higher.
00:51There is an imbalance, and I'm losing money.
00:54The U.S. is Thailand's third largest market by volume, but most lucrative.
01:00It usually imports the most expensive fragrant jasmine variety, which the Thai Rice Exporters Association says brought in $735 million last year.
01:11The group's honorary president, Chu Kiat Opadwang, says Thailand will struggle to compete in the U.S. market if the new tariffs go ahead.
01:20If the U.S. imposes high tariffs on us, our jasmine rice will be too expensive to compete.
01:29If they impose 30% tariffs at $1,000 per metric ton, the price would rise to about $1,300.
01:37This is a very high price, and since we don't know how Vietnam plans to negotiate, and the price of Vietnamese jasmine rice is at $580 per metric ton, no matter how much they manage to bring the tariffs down, or even if they get like a 40% negotiated tariff, there is still a considerable gap between our price and their price, given our higher base price.
02:00The association noted a 30% decline in Thailand's overall rice exports for the first quarter.
02:11That's as countries delayed buying decisions and supply grew with India's return to the market.
02:17The association expects a similar decline in exports over the next three months.
02:23The concessions Thailand is proposing to counter-Trump include bringing tariffs of U.S. corn down from 73% to zero.
02:32But industry groups say that would also hurt Thai farmers.
02:38President of the rice millers association, Banjong Tanjit Watanakun, says a flood of cheap corn imports could further depress prices of broken rice and rice bran, which are used in animal feed.
02:51The industry and farmers are pinning their hopes on negotiations between a Thai delegation led by the country's finance minister and the U.S.
02:59For farmers like Deng, their livelihoods hang in the balance and may be jeopardized by decisions made halfway across the world.
03:09My children read the news and they tell me, we won't be able to survive, Mum, if things go on like this, with what the foreign countries are doing.
03:19We'll be done.
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