Thailand, Malaysia to sign rice deal

Commerce Minister Chaiya Sasomsap said Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and Malaysia's agriculture minister will meet tomorrow in Bangkok to wrap up the purchasing details.

Early this year, Malaysia purchased 200,000 tonnes of rice from private exporters in Thailand. Malaysia is expected to need a further 500,000 tonnes to serve that country's demand, with the target import sources being Thailand and Vietnam.

Chaiya said the price quoted for the contract was expected to be no lower than US$860 (Bt29,400) per tonne for 5percent white rice. This contract should also release more rice from government stockpiles for the upcoming harvest season.

The Thai government has 3.4 million tonnes of rice stockpiled, of which 2.1 million tonnes are from the 200506 and 200607 harvest seasons and 1.3 million tonnes from the current secondcrop harvest season.