MANILA (Dow Jones)--Rice exports from Thailand, the world's top supplier, could reach 10 million metric tons this year, higher than earlier projections of 9.5 million tons, an industry official said Friday.

  "We could easily reach 10 million tons," said Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, noting that Thai exports in the first six months of the year were already close to 6 million tons.

  "We've already exported 5.97 million tons in the first half of the year. We only need to export around 700,000 tons a month to reach a total export volume of 10 million tons," said Chookiat.

For the parboiled market alone, monthly exports could reach 400,000 tons as India continues to implement a ban on non-basmati grain, Chookiat said.

  According to Chookiat, India normally exports around 200,000 tons of parboiled grain, about the same volume of parboiled that Thailand ships abroad.

  "Thailand is now supplying that portion of parboiled demand that India used to supply. We expect demand for parboiled to continue coming in," he said.

  Just recently, Thai exporters signed an export contract involving 200,000 tons of parboiled for shipment to Nigeria, he said.

  In addition to Nigeria, regular buyers such as those from the Middle East continue to make inquiries for Thai grain, although the white rice market has slowed down in recent months, said Chookiat.

  "We still have a slight advantage over Vietnam because we have a broader market," he said, adding that regular purchasers of Vietnam rice were limited to four major buyers, namely the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cuba. 
 
   -By Rhea Sandique-Carlos, Dow Jones Newswires, 63-918-9014158; This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  
 
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