SINGAPORE: India has overtaken Thailand as Singapore's

biggest rice supplier

for the first time, exporting 92,865 tonnes or 32.9% of the total rice supply to the island nation in the first eight months of 2013.

Thailand shipped 85,816 tonnes or 30.4 per cent during the January-August period of this year to Singapore, reported The Straits Times on Saturday.

Vietnam supplied 77,459 tonnes or 27.4 per cent of rice supply during the period.

Indian rice exports to Singapore had risen to 29.5% last year from 15.3% in 2009.

Thailand has been the leading rice supplier to Singapore since 1998, accounting for over half of the total rice consumption of the city state between 1998 and 2011.

But its market share fell to 35.3% last year while supplies from India and other countries have increased.

"Importers (are) taking advantage of the lower prices of Indian rice compared to Thai rice," the daily quoted a trade and industry ministry spokesman.

The Singapore General Rice Importers Association said the shift in sourcing rice started when global rice prices began surging in 2008.

Other rice producing countries have also curbed exports to ensure sufficient domestic supplies while Thai crops have been hit by massive floods in the past.

Other rice suppliers to Singapore include Myanmar (2.5%), Pakistan (2.4%), the United States (2.2%), Cambodia (0.9%) and Australia (0.6%) as well as others (0.7%).