Thailand to send tonnes of rice to Malaysia

Local exporters would manage the sale on behalf of the government.

Thai rice will help shore up the Malaysian government after it was down to only 15 days of rice stocks to feed its people.

Malaysia's agriculture and agro-based industry minister, Mustapa Mohamed, met yesterday with Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to discuss rice imports from the Kingdom.

As the world's biggest rice exporter, Thailand expects to ship out more than 9 million tonnes of the staple this year.

The Commerce Ministry said many countries, including Malaysia, are approaching both the government and exporting companies to negotiate orders of 6.7 million tonnes.

Government spokesman Wichianchot Sukchotrat said the food crisis in Malaysia has prompted the government there to rush to purchase Thai rice.

Malaysia will take both 5-per-cent and 15-per-cent white rice.

Thailand will deliver about 100,000 and no more than 250,000 tonnes of rice to Malaysia within three days at quotes in line with market prices, which are now US$880 per tonne for 5-per-cent white rice and $850 for lower quality 15-per-cent white rice.

The spokesman said the Commerce Ministry would consider how the sale would be structured, whether it would be in the form of a government-to-government deal or some other convenient trading model.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Rice Exporters Association, said the prices should be set higher - at $910 per tonne for 15-per-cent white rice and $930 for 5-per-cent white rice - because Malaysia's rice standard is different from other markets.

"Purchasing commodities is different from industrial goods as a big volume is required. The price will also be high in line with the volume because it is hard to respond to such a huge quantity," he said.

Normally, Malaysia's rice imports reach 700,000-800,000 tonnes per year, with 400,000 tonnes coming from Thailand and the remainder from Vietnam. However, Vietnam will have a limited surplus this year.

Afraid of the declining paddy prices, Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan said his ministry was ready to implement any intervention measures to stabilise the domestic rice price.

Thai restaurant owners in the United Kingdom are pressing the government to send 40,000 tonnes of jasmine rice to them otherwise they might go out of business.