The Commerce Ministry is set to release 200,000 tons of rice through the Agricultural Futures Exchange in Thailand (AFET) on April 23.
The ministry said the past 8 rice auctions generated over 7 billion baht worth of revenue and a total of 550,000 tons of rice have been sold. Most of the 5 percent white rice stocks have been sold at up to 12 baht per kilogram.
Thailand recently lost the latest contract to supply 800,000 tons of 15% broken well-milled white rice to Philippines, which opened tender last week to a Vietnamese company. Thai white rice prices are expected to stay relatively low after the failure to win the Philippines contract.
The ministry is expected to keep the price of domestic rice stable by selling the rice stocks at rates that are not too low, particularly during the period when the rice-pledging program is temporarily shelved.
Source: http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNEVN5704210010003