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By Prof. Dr. Apichart Vanavichit
Thailand has two fragrant rice standards: Thai Hom Mali Rice and Thai Jasmine Rice. Thai Hom Mali Rice is produced from Khao Dawk Mali 105 and RD15, with strict requirements on physical and chemical properties and varietal purity (DNA test). Thai Jasmine Rice is produced from fragrant rice other than Thai Hom Mali, with looser requirements on physical and chemical properties, cooking quality and varietal purity. However, no standard has been set for soft rice without aroma. In the end, non-fragrant soft rice is mixed with top-grade fragrant rice, damaging the quality of Thai Hom Mali Rice. In many cases, soft rice with no market is mixed with hard rice, lowering the quality of parboiled rice, rice noodles and khanom jeen. To prevent soft rice from contaminating other types of rice,
the government needs to set a standard for soft rice and market it to consumers who like soft rice, both at home and abroad, to raise the competitiveness of Thai rice in the world market.
Is Thailand Really About to Lose the Soft Fragrant Rice Championship to Vietnam? ?
From 2016 to 2019, Thailand's overall rice export volume fell by 32% while Vietnam's fell by only 9%. In particular, Thailand's fragrant rice exports (1.1 million tons) are lower than Vietnam's (1.9 million tons), so there is concern that the future of Thai fragrant rice will certainly not be bright. The key factors are, first, Thai fragrant rice yield (500–600 kg/rai) compared with Vietnamese fragrant rice (>1 ton/rai). Second, the price of Thai fragrant rice (1,190 USD/ton) is higher than Vietnam's (510 USD/ton). Third, Vietnamese fragrant rice matures much earlier than Thai fragrant rice. Today consumers often eat out, making restaurants important customers, and to cut costs restaurants prefer to order cheaper soft rice to serve customers.
Fragrant rice breeding in Vietnam is in the hands of a private company in Sóc Trăng, not the government. Vietnam has devoted itself to raising yield, grain size and excellent physical properties, so its production cost is much lower than Thailand's, and in 2018 the ST24 variety won first prize at the World's Best Rice contest, further worrying Thai jasmine rice exporters. For Thai soft fragrant rice to compete with Vietnamese fragrant rice, yield must be raised, or production efficiency increased at the same cost.
