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 exporters of Thailand has planned to buy all 160,000 tonnes of edible rice in national reserves, which was put for the third rice auction this year.

Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce will re-examine the qualifications of the exporters and consider prices before submitting to the National Rice Committee for approval. If the government agrees to sell the entire lot, it could earn 1.1 billion THB (around 32 million USD).

Besides, the Thai Government is planning to hold the fourth auction of inedible rice in 2017, with an estimated volume of 2.6 million tonnes.

The inedible rice has been in stock since the start of the Yingluck Shinawatra government, which offered to buy rice from farmers at higher-than-market prices.

If the auction is held early and the government decides to sell the entire amount, Thailand could fulfil its goal of selling all rice in stock right in July.

The move will relieve pressure on Thai rice prices amid growing rice prices in the world market after many rice-importing and rice-producing countries were hit by bad weather, forcing them to seek supplies from Thailand.

[Thailand gets urgent rice orders from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka]

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had held talks to purchase about 400,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand to replenish their falling stocks which were caused by severe droughts and floods.-VNA