Ministry plans new rice auction
The Commerce Ministry will open another round of bidding soon for one million tonnes of jasmine paddy rice to serve export demand and reduce its inventory.
Preecha Laohapongchana, caretaker deputy commerce minister, said yesterday the bidding will be open for exporters and traders who need rice to fill their orders. "Due mainly to tension in the market over rice supplies the ministry considers this a suitable time to release [government] rice stocks," he said, adding that the government would also get a good price. Polished jasmine rice is selling in the market for US$490 (Bt18,550) per tonne. One tonne of jasmine paddy rice can be milled into 600,000 kilograms of polished rice. The next round would be the third bidding for jasmine rice this year. The government last month cancelled an auction of 156,619 tonnes of jasmine rice from the 2005-06 season, after failing to persuade 15 bidders to raise their offers to near the market price. The ministry will have jasmine paddy rice from its Northeast warehouses milled next week in preparation for a sale. It will also directly sell rice to millers. Allowing the paddy rice to be milled would prevent deterioration in rice quality and prevent millers and warehouse owners from diluting the quality, Preecha said. Petchanet Pratruangkrai, The Nation
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