Thailand to sell stockpiled rice within two months

Illustrative photo (Source:Internet)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s government on April 25 announced a plan to sell all 11.4 million tonnes of rice in stockpile within two months with the aim to generate 100 billion THB (2.84 billion USD).

As planned, auctions will start next week, with one million tonnes of rice each.

According to the country’s Ministry of Commerce, Thailand has about 100,000 tonnes of "good grade" rice in state warehouses, 7.5 million tonnes of "sub-standard" rice, 1.5 million tonnes of rice earmarked for industrial use, and 2.4 million tonnes of spoiled rice.

Since May 2014, the Thai government has auctioned off 5.05 million tonnes of rice worth 1.5 billion USD through several government-to-government contracts.

The government had previously said it aimed to clear the stockpile by the end of 2017.

The commerce ministry forecasts rice output in 2016 to fall 1.7 percent compared to last year, however, rice exports will still reach 9.5 million tonnes as in 2015.

Thailand is currently the world’s second largest rice exporter after India . In the past two decades, the country has exported around 10 million tonnes of rice each year.-VNA