The Ministry of Commerce has set a goal to distribute one million tons of rice via the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) by June this year.

The Internal Trade Department under the Ministry of Commerce, in collaboration with the Public Warehouse Association and AFET, on Wednesday organized an auction of rice from the government’s rice pledging scheme. 14 rice traders participated in the auction.

Deputy Minister of Commerce Yanyong Puangrach said it was the 10th time that the government arranged an auction of the rice. 162,344 tons of over 212,900 tons of rice from 12 provinces nationwide were auctioned. Around 700,000 tons of rice had been sold via AFET with 300,000 tons more set to be auctioned before June, the deputy minister said.

Mr Yanyong confirmed Thailand’s rice exports were not affected by the rice price drop and expressed his confidence that rice price would not further decrease.

Source: National News Bureau & Public Relations