BANGKOK, 23 April 2014, – The Department of Internal Trade (DIT) has revealed that the price of the 5% moisture Thai rice has declined by 0.30 baht, down to 11-12 baht per kilogram, after Thailand has failed to seal a rice deal with the Philippines.
According to Mr. Somchart Soithong, the DIT Director General, the failure to sell 800,000 tons of rice to the Philippines has shaken confidence of the bidders expected to participate in today’s Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) rice auction. The department will negotiate with bidders to prevent rice prices from dropping any further.
However, according to the Department of Foreign Trade’s reports, several countries such as Middle East nations, South Korea, African countries, and China have expressed interests in purchasing rice from Thailand, which is indicative that grain prices would recover next month, said Somchart.
The DIT plans to auction off over 200,000 tons of pledged rice in stock in today’s 10th AFET rice auction.The rice on offer consists of 50,000 tons of Jasmine rice and 160,000 tons of 5% moisture white rice, Somchat said, adding that he is confident that the DIT will be able to sell more than half of that amount, while promising to forge ahead with the AFET auctions at least until the end of this year. The DIT has been able to sell 547,000 tons of rice, worth over 7 billion baht altogether, in nine previous auctions, the Director-General said.
