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Published on September 6, 2007

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Managing director Apichat Chansakulporn said the company would file a lawsuit if the ministry annulled any rice contracts that it had won last year.

After winning bidding for 1.2 million tonnes, the company had rushed to inspect the rice's quality in warehouses. However, it found the majority of the stock to be of degraded quality, Apichat said.

To ensure fair practice and transparency, the company had invited the Board of Trade and the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) to jointly inspect the quality of the rice.

Apichat said the inspection had found that 60,000 tonnes of rice in PWO's warehouses was of degraded quality. Then the company sent more than 10 letters to both the ministry's top officials and PWO's board urging further investigation. The low-quality rice could not be exported, he said.

However, nobody was sent to inspect the rice stockpiles. As a result, President Agri Trading wrote to the ministry to cancel the contracts.

The company has subsequently been accused by the ministry of misappropriating 30,000 tonnes of rice meant for Iran and Indonesia.

"Why have we been accused of embezzlement? I dare to bet my head that the ministry claimed that stocks of its rice were high-grade. It is not true," Apichat said.

The ministry could seize a cash guarantee of Bt600 million-Bt700 million if President Agri Trading cancels its contracts.

But Apichat said the company could sue the ministry for compensation for damages and lost opportunities. "If we sue the ministry, I'm confident that I will 100 per cent win the case," he added.

The ministry's Foreign Trade Department yesterday announced it would reopen bidding on 558,000 tonnes of 5-per-cent white rice today. The stockpile was seized from President Agri Trading after it was claimed that the company had failed to fulfil its commitments.

A source at one rice exporter said bidders would not offer a price as high as President Agri Trading's offer last year. The company won the lots at an average price of Bt1,090-Bt1,100 per 100-kilogram sack. At the moment, the market price is Bt1,035.

"The offered price should be Bt1,000 per sack due to degraded rice, which will cause the government to face a loss," the source said.

 The Nation