BANGKOK, 10 March 2014 The Ministry of Commerce is set to auction over 500,000 tons of pledged rice today in a bid to secure funds to pay back farmers in the rice-pledging scheme.
Interested exporters and businesses are invited to participate in the bidding which will be held between 9AM and 4.30PM today.
The rice stock will include 5 percent white rice and 100 percent jasmine rice.
The ministry earlier said that it plans to auction off more than one million tons of milled rice this month. The one million plus tons target includes over 516,000 tons of rice to be auctioned off through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand.
Networks of farmers from rice-growing provinces meanwhile continue to stay put at the ministry compound. The number of protesters began to drop recently as many needed to return home for the annual planting season.
Rice growers will re-group again on March 12 and will hold discussions on their next move against the government.
