Trump tariffs threaten to pile more pain on Thailand's rice sector

Milled rice at a rice mill in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand | REUTERS

by CHAYUT SETBOONSARNG AND PANARAT THEPGUMPANAT

Wires
April 23, 2025

NAKHON PATHOM, THAILAND – Thai farmer Daeng Donsingha was already worried for her family of nine when rice prices in the world's second-largest exporter of the staple crashed this year after India resumed exports.
Now, she's also fretting over the tariffs unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump, which could slash demand for Thai rice in its most valuable foreign market and create turmoil in an export industry worth billions of dollars.

"The problem is that the price of rice is very low, while other costs such as fertilizers and farmland rent is higher," the 70-year-old farmer said, after selling her harvest at a rice mill in central Thailand. "I'm losing money."