BANGKOK: Thailand’s military government sold 152,377 tonnes of rice from state stockpiles in its first auction of the year, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry had said on February 1 that it aimed to sell 570,000 tonnes of rice for human consumption and industrial use. Bids of 15 private companies were successful in the auction of the rice which comes from 35 state warehouses.
Rice worth 1.78 billion baht ($50 million) was sold on Tuesday in the first of two planned auctions, the ministry said. It had planned to sell 204,000 tonnes in the first lot. The ministry said the sale would have to be approved by Thailand’s rice management committee but did not provide a time frame. The second lot, for which the ministry will start receiving offers on Wednesday, will have 360,000 tonnes of grade c rice for industrial use.
Thailand, the world’s second biggest rice exporter after India, has about 13 million tonnes of rice in storage, the consequence of a scheme by the previous administration which bought rice at higher-than-market prices. The scheme was popular with farmers but cost the government billions of baht.
Since taking power in 2014, Thailand’s military government has auctioned off 5 million tonnes of rice through several tenders, with sales worth about $1.5 billion. It has said some of the rice in storage is unfit for human and animal consumption and would be used in the industrial sector, including for ethanol production. The government plans to clear the stocks in the warehouses by the end of 2017.
