Govt gets high prices in rice bid
The Commerce Ministry enjoyed high bidding for rice yesterday as exporters faced good demand to facilitate their shipments and serve domestic demand.
Twenty six bidders offered from Bt9,000 to Bt16,250 per tonne for jasmine rice from the 2004-05 harvest. Market prices are Bt14,000 to Bt16,000.The country's leading rice exporter, CP Intertrade Co Ltd, is likely to win the biggest lot of 503,700 tonnes of jasmine rice. It offered to purchase 229,355 tonnes of jasmine rice at Bt15,250-Bt16,250 per tonne. Commerce Ministry permanent secretary Karun Kittisataporn said the bidding produced a good result for rice from the 2004-05 crop. However, the ministry may not release the whole lot of rice stocks. "We will negotiate with bidders again in order to get the best prices and quantities," he said. The ministry also opened bids for 1.7 million tonnes of white rice from the 2005-06 harvest. Five bidders offered prices between US$290 (Bt10,843) to US$306.75 per tonne for 5-per-cent white rice. Three bidders offered prices from US$234.40 to US$267 per tonne for 25-per-cent white rice. The market price for 5-per-cent white rice is US$313 per tonne, while 25-per-cent white rice is priced at US$274 per tonne. Chaiyaporn Rice Co Ltd was the highest bidder to purchase 251,196 tonnes of 5-per-cent white rice. Ponglarb was the highest bidder to buy 1,320 tonnes of 25-per-cent white rice. The ministry still has stocks of 800,000 tonnes of rice. Petchanet Pratruangkrai The Nation
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