Flood damage weighs on rice output in Thailand.

Higher than expected flooding damage to fragrant rice has led to a lowering in forecast 2017-18 rice production in Thailand. However, higher average yields still have rice production in 2017-18 on pace to best output in 2016-17. The revised forecast for MY 2017-18 main crop rice production is 6% higher than MY 2016-17 main crop rice production as yield improvements more than offset production losses from flooding, particularly in the northeastern region. Fragrant paddy rice production is revised down slightly to 6.7 million tonnes due to flooding damage, which is still 2% above MY 2016-17 fragrant paddy rice production as yields increased 20% to 30% in upland areas.