30-Nov-2006 - Thai and Vietnamese rice exporters are planning to make an official declaration that they have no genetically modified rice in production in a bid to enhance their sales on the global market.

Thailand's rice producers are hoping to benefit from Europe's recently implemented rules for US-grown rice, requiring shipments to be accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence of Bayer's LL Rice 601 before entering the EU market. The new rules follow the contamination of some supplies last month with the genetically modified variety.

Wanlop Pichpongsa, from one of the largest exporters, Capital Rice, said several Thai companies had been contacted by European importers for samples and some containers of rice since the contamination had occurred.

"It's too early to tell how much we're going to gain from this situation," he told AP-Foodtechnology.com. "But we're hoping that if we start new sales to the EU we can take some market share on a permanent basis."

Thai exporters met with the Vietnam Food Association in Bangkok last week to discuss an announcement that both countries will maintain non-genetically engineered rice. The agreement will be made official at the associations' next meeting in March next year.

GM is becoming a growing issue for rice exporters, with Greenpeace alerting consumers to new cases of contamination with LL601 almost on a weekly basis. It claims to have found the rice in the Philipines in products coming from the US. Last week contamination was announced in several countries in Africa.

Greenpeace said the agreement between rice traders from Thailand and Vietnam "protects half the crop traded on the world market from the dangers of GE, and will put mounting pressure on other rice-producing nations to commit to a GE-free rice supply".

Rice exporters in India, the world's third largest exporter of rice, also announced that they were supporting a ban on GE rice field trials because of the threat they pose to their GE-free export markets. The Indian government has yet to take action to ban field trials however.

The Thai government has not yet made its position on GM produce clear either. Despite holding a press conference at the end of last month to stress that there was no GM rice in the country, Greenpeace says it needs to make an official statement and also introduce routine monitoring of imports.

"We have sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to make an official statement but have had no reply," said Patwajee Srisuwan, an anti-GE campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.She added that there is evidence on the Food and Agriculture Organisation website to suggest that Thailand is experimenting with a drought resistant GE rice but that no information was available on where the experiments were being done.

This information has not been verified by AP-Foodtechnology.com.

Thailand is known to be interested in biotech as a way of increasing the yields of its agriculture sector, still the main source of income for millions of its population. It is seeing a rising challenge from China in many of its biggest exports including rice, shrimp and pineapples.However Pichpongsa noted that the ministry of commerce is keen to promote its non-GM status and that this had now become a strong selling point.

Currently, Thailand exports about 250,000 tonnes of jasmine rice to the EU but it sells minimal quantities of the long-grain and parboiled rice, which US exporters offer.

If Thailand wants to tap into demand for this product, it will have to prove the quality, as the EU has favoured more expensive US rice for this reason, Pichpongsa said.

The EU is also looking at Latin American and other European countries like Spain to fill the gap in rice supply so Thailand will also have competition from other producers.

Vietnam, the world's second biggest rice exporter after Thailand, will also be looking at the new opportunity.