Eleven rice exporters of Thailand has planned to buy all 160,000 tonnes of edible rice in national reserves (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Eleven rice exportersof Thailand has planned to buy all 160,000 tonnes of edible rice in nationalreserves, which was put for the third rice auction this year.
Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce will re-examinethe qualifications of the exporters and consider prices before submitting tothe National Rice Committee for approval. If the government agrees to sell theentire lot, it could earn 1.1 billion THB (around 32 million USD).
Besides, the Thai Government is planning tohold the fourth auction of inedible rice in 2017, with an estimated volume of2.6 million tonnes.
The inedible rice has been in stock since thestart of the Yingluck Shinawatra government, which offered to buy rice fromfarmers at higher-than-market prices.
If the auction is held early and thegovernment decides to sell the entire amount, Thailand could fulfil its goal ofselling all rice in stock right in July.
The move will relieve pressure on Thai riceprices amid growing rice prices in the world market after many rice-importingand rice-producing countries were hit by bad weather, forcing them to seeksupplies from Thailand.
[Thailand gets urgent rice orders from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka]
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had held talks topurchase about 400,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand to replenish their fallingstocks which were caused by severe droughts and floods.-VNA
