Thai government releases new lot of rice stocks

BANGKOK, May 16 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce, will release a new lot of quality rice stocks nationwide, amounting to some 1.82 million tons, next week. Duangporn Rodphaya, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, told journalists on Tuesday that rice operators in the country are now welcome to attend briefing sessions on official conditions required for their open bidding of the new lot of rice stocks at her ministry on the outskirts of Bangkok during May 15-19. Duangporn said all the remaining 1.82 million tons of locally-grown grains for human consumtpion stored at 210 warehouses in 38 Thai provinces will be offered for the upcoming bidding, the second time this year. According to the senior official, there will be 16 Thai rice strains offered for the new bidding, over 70 per cent of them are the Hom Mali strains and the rest include 5 per cent and 10 per cent white rice strains. The senior official notified that interested rice operators nationwide, including individuals, firms and agricultural cooperatives, are welcome to inspect the offered grains at the warehouses on May 22 and qualified bidders will be allowed to submit their bidding prices on May 24, with the winning bidders to be announced on the same day. The senior official revealed that about 11.73 million tons of locally-grown rice stored at the government-sponsored warehouses had been released during May 22, 2014-April 19, 2017, worth about 111.75 billion baht totally. The senior official also reported that about 4.1 million tons of Thai rice had been shipped to overseas markets as of May 9, 2017, an increase of 9.6 per cent year-on-year, earning the country over 60.83 billion baht, a 4.4 per cent year-on-year increase. (TNA)