Bidding to open for white Thai rice

The Commerce Ministry would soon open bidding for white rice to relieve rising pressure on rice prices and free up warehouse space for the upcoming harvest.
"The ministry will soon call for a meeting with agencies, including the Foreign Trade Department and the Public Warehouse Organisation, to fix the volume and time for the new tender," Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai said yesterday.
The government's National Rice Policy Committee recently agreed that it was time to release rice stocks to the market, she said.
The government has about 6 million tonnes of the grain in its inventory, which it tried twice to sell to the market, but the bids were too low.
Paddy rice will not be made available, even though exporters have been clamouring for a supply of unhusked rice, as the procedures for releasing paddy rice is more complicated than for polished rice, she added.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the government must consider disposing of its huge rice stocks, to address the shortage in the domestic and export markets.
"Releasing stocks to rice exporters and domestic packers via bidding would be an efficient way of easing rising prices, particularly domestic prices," he said. The rice should be released in small lots to prevent the rice price from dropping, he said.
Consumers have been forced to shoulder higher retail rice prices because domestic traders and exporters have had to compete to purchase rice from the market.
In the past week, the domestic price for 5-per-cent white rice jumped from Bt1,500 to Bt1,600 per 100-kilogram sack.
Yangyong Phuangrach, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said his department will soon call an urgent meeting with millers, exporters and agencies to prepare for the kick-off of the rice guarantee project next month.
The department will also discuss issues relating to rice liberalisation under the Asean Free Trade Area.