The Commerce Ministry plans to hold another round of bidding for 200,000 tonnes of rice next week, which could be the last before the main harvest season starts rolling early next month.

After a meeting of the rice stock-releasing committee, a ministry source said yesterday that the auction for general traders should be opened on October 22.

The ministry will ask for approval from the chairman of the Rice Policy and Management Committee and publish the terms of reference tomorrow.

The source said this could be the last general bidding for this year. After that the ministry might suspend further rounds to prevent pressure on rice prices in the market during the harvest.

However, the ministry will proceed with rice releasing via other methods such as government-to-government and government-to-private sales.

Of the 200,000 tonnes on offer, about 80,000 tonnes will be 5-per-cent white rice and 120,000 tonnes will be broken rice.

Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the rice price had been falling for a couple weeks because of the rain. Shippers could not transport rice as they were afraid of high humidity.

According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, 5-per-cent white rice was quoted at US$428 a tonne on October 8, compared with $433 on October 1. Thai rice is fairly cheap compared with 5-per-cent Vietnamese rice, which is traded at $445 a tonne.

The ministry has succeeded in disposing of about 140,000 tonnes of government rice via two auctions worth Bt1.7 billion this year.

A rice trader noted that the next auction would interest only exporters, as only 5-per-cent white rice and broken rice were available. Normally, the domestic market consumes 100-per-cent white rice.

Source: The Nation