AS THE market price of rice has fallen, the Commerce Ministry will delay its plan to open the year's third round of bidding on its stockpiles, previously scheduled for early next month.

However, the government will continue to sell its rice through other methods, mainly government-to-government contracts, which Thailand currently has with China and the Philippines, Commerce Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya said yesterday.

Thailand recently won a contract to sell about 200,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines. It will also sign a G2G rice contract with China for another 2 million tonnes of rice in May. Other countries such as South Korea and Turkey have also shown strong interest in purchasing rice and other products from Thailand, Chatchai said.

According to the Thai Rice Mills Association, the average price of paddy white rice was Bt7,300-Bt7,900 per tonne this week.

Chatchai said the ministry would closely monitor the market price and other factors to determine the right time to sell its rice, of which it still has large stockpiles.

Sombat Chalermwutinan, president of Asia Golden Rice, the country's leading rice exporter, said the government should delay the rice auction, since continuing to release the commodity had caused the market price to drop. He suggested that the government announce clearly that it would not accelerate the release of rice from its stockpiles, as its plan to sell up to 10 million tonnes a year had pressured prices downwards.

"The government should not put pressure on itself by announcing its plans to release huge amounts of rice to the market, since it will hit the rice price. It could gradually release rice from the stocks to traders, and under the government contracts, but should not sell too aggressively," he said.

Source: Bangkok Post