SINGAPORE: Sugar exports by Thailand, the world's second-largest exporter of the sweetener, are estimated at 7.7 million tonnes in the 2012/13 season, slightly lower than last year because of insufficient rain, a government official said on Friday.
Thailand's next crushing season is due to start in October or November.
"Rains are not evenly distributed," Rangsit Hiangrat, an official of the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board of Thailand, told Reuters on the sidelines of a sugar industry conference in Singapore.
"In the central part there's a lot of rain, particularly in Bangkok, but in the cane areas, there's not enough rain."
Thailand's sugar exports in 2011/12 were about 8 million tonnes, because the country produced 10.2 million tonnes of the sweetener, said Rangsit, the director of the Board's cane and sugar industry policy bureau.
Referring to exports in the next crop year, he said, "If we produce 10 million tonnes, we can have about 7 million tonnes. The 2.3 million tonnes are for domestic use."
The Cane Board will issue official estimates of production in October.
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