Seventeen bidders participated in the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) rice auction yesterday, competing to buy 450,000 tons of stockpiled rice, according to a Commerce Ministry report. Out of all the bidders, 14 expressed interest in purchasing grain from the 2012 stockpile, while the other three were eyeing lower-quality rice.

Bid opening will be conducted today, and negotiations will be made before the winning price is forwarded to Mr. Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, the caretaker Prime Minister and Commerce Minister, for approval within this week. The Ministry said that principally, it would still base the auction price on the global rice price and would also deliver the grain at an earliest date possible. It also speculated that more than 200,000 tons of the rice on offer would be sold this time.

Regarding the Government-to-Government deal to sell 800,000 tons of rice to Malaysia, the report said it was still under negotiation as the Thai price is about 10 USD different from the global price tag. The Ministry believed that Thai rice still has an upper hand at sealing the deal as the rival bidder, Vietnam, has raised its price close to the Thai rice and still has the problem of delivering rice to the Philippines under an auction it won earlier.

Source: the Thai Financial Post