The minister, who led a delegation of public and private sectorrepresentatives to promote Thai jasmine rice in China's Guangdong Province from Dec. 23-25, was quoted by Thursday's Businessday newspaper as saying that he received a warm welcome from the ChinaCouncil for the Promotion of International Trade, a state enterprise willing to popularize Thai rice among the Chinese.

"A survey of the Thai rice market in Guangdong shows that the price of Thai jasmine rice is about twice as high than other varieties of rice yet it is still popular among Chinese consumers," he said.

Adisai said Guangdong officials told him that the province willincrease the import of Thai jasmine rice next year as there is a huge demand.

He said under China's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations it will open its market and import more rice every year.

"Chinese officials and I held further discussions on activitiesto support sales of Thai jasmine rice which has to be done continuously in order to reach other Chinese provinces aside from Guangdong," said Adisai.

Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter, with total shipments at 7.5 million tons a year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2002)