BANGKOK, 21 Aug 2013 The Commerce Ministry will review its auction policies after the third round of pledged rice auction attracted only 7 bidders, only 2 of which were qualified and only 30,000 tons out of the 210,000 tons of pledged rice were sold.
Foreign Trade Department Director General Pranee Siripan revealed that the 30,000 tons of rice auctioned out were white rice with 5% water content for exporting. She said that the Ministry was unable to sell other kinds of rice including jasmine and sticky rice, as prices offered by the bidders were all below the median price.
She added that the prices for the 5% white rice were only slightly higher than that in the previous auction. The result of the auction will be reported to Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan who would then authorize the deal.
Ms. Pranee said that a meeting has been scheduled for Friday with Minister Niwatthamrong presiding over, to review the current auction policies and find other measures to ensure that the remaining pledged rice in government warehouses will be released as planned.
The Director General also disclosed that her department is holding G2G talks with Iraq and other nations in order to sell off the pledged rice in stocks. She expressed confidence that the move would speed up rice sale and enable the government to achieve its goal of returning the fund borrowed from the Finance Ministry as planned.
