BANGKOK, Aug 20 – The Commerce Ministry called for bids on three batches of rice in the past week but rice traders were less enthusiastic to buy grain under the government’s rice pledging scheme.
The ministry will today disclose the proposed prices and winners for 200,000 tonnes of rice from the 2012/2013 annual harvest and the 2013 second crop.
The third or latest batch includes 101,000 tonnes of 5 per cent white rice for export and 100,000 tonnes of 10 per cent fragrant and glutinous rice for domestic distribution and export.
Seven rice trading companies which submitted their proposed prices yesterday were Chaiyaporn Rice and Food Products, Thai Fah (2511), Ponglarb, Capital Cereals, Asia Golden Rice, Golden Grain Enterprise and Nam Saeng Rice Trading.
After the proposed prices are disclosed, the Commerce Ministry will negotiate with the winning traders.
The Commerce Ministry recently released only 210,000 tonnes of the targetted 500,000 tonnes, from its stockpile.
