Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s rice exports in thesecond half of this year may miss the target due to serious shortage oflabourers at seaports as a direct result of the new foreign workers law.

“Rice exports which were doing well, out of a sudden, hit withlabour shortage, causing delay in delivery,” Thai media quoted ChukiatOpaswong, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, as sayingon July 5.

According to him, the number of stevedores at the seaportshas decreased by 30-40 percent since the new law was enforced.

As a result, it now takes about a month by average for riceto be loaded on a freighter, much longer than the time of 7-10 days earlier.

He said rice exporters are committed to shipping 900,000tonnes of rice abroad each month in order to meet the export target of 10million tonnes for this year.  However,due to the delay in delivery, he estimated that about 700,000-800,000 tonnescan be exported each month.

Chukiat noted that the strong baht and the volatility of thecurrency also impact on rice exports for the second half of the year in a waythat it will make Thai rice less competitive compared to rice from competitorssuch as Vietnam.-VNA