Thai rice prices expected to increase in May

BANGKOK, April 22 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce says that the prices of Thai rice on the world market are expected to rise next month. Somchart Soithong, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Internal Trade, made the assessment on Tuesday, but he admitted that the Thai private sector's recent failure to win a rice supply contract covering 800,000 tonnes from the Philippines has reduced the prices of Thai rice, including the price of white rice which drops by 0.30 baht per kilogram, from 11-12 baht. Somchart also accepted that the incident caused a pressure to the 10th auction of the Thai government's rice on the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) on April 23, but he believes that negative impacts on the Thai rice prices should be temporary. Thailand's caretaker government will put 210,000 tonnes of rice up for auction on April 23, comprising 50,000 tonnes of Hom Mali, or fragrant rice, and 160,000 tonnes of 5 per cent broken white rice. Meanwhile, the Department of Internal Trade predicted that the prices of Thai rice could pick up, as potential buyers from the Middle East, Africa, South Korea and China will arrive in Thailand next month to discuss rice orders. Over the past nine rice auctions, the Thai government sold 547,000 tonnes of rice, worth more than 7 billion baht, and the Ministry of Commerce announced that it will maintain its regulations for such rice auctions through the AFET and base rice prices in the auctions as closely as possible to their market prices. (TNA)