Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is scheduled to meet his deputy Trairong Suwannakhiri on Monday to discuss concerns about large sales of rice from government stocks.

An investigation panel is expected to report soon on the Commerce Ministry's recent proposal to release a large quantity of rice to a little-known local exporter, the premier said yesterday.

However, he insisted final approval would take into account mainly the offered prices and would be based on the sales strategy of the national rice policy committee and cabinet guidelines.

MT Center Trade Co won a Commerce Ministry bid for up to 1.87 million tonnes of rice. The amount included 754,266.92 tonnes of 5% white rice; 270,137.9 tonnes of Pathum fragrant rice from the Marketing Organisation for Farmers; and 845,783 tonnes of 5% white rice from the Public Warehouse Organisation. It offered 12,000 baht a tonne for white rice and 16,850 baht a tonne for fragrant rice.

The deal raised eyebrows among some exporters who believed the small company was a nominee of a larger trader and might sell some of the rice back into the domestic market.

However, Chen Junchang, the managing director of MT Center Trade, said the company had been authorised to represent the Chinese state enterprise Guangdong Guanghong Import and Export Co, which had failed to win two earlier bids.

Mr Chen said the Commerce Ministry and other relevant parties had all acknowledged the appropriateness of his company's proposal, and that all of the rice would be exported.

The National Rice Policy Committee still must approve the deal.

Given concerns about transparency, Mr Trairong said a working panel and the ministers in charge would need to clarify their decisions to the cabinet.

Mr Trairong recently returned from Nigeria and Senegal, which want to buy a combined 1.15 million tonnes of rice and are scheduled to send negotiators to Thailand this month.

Meanwhile, business leaders will propose to the government that a new rice strategy committee be set up to settle the problems of rice farmers.

Pornsil Patcharintanakul, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the new panel must be politician-free, instead comprising experts representing all sectors.

"Previous governments policies to help farmers, including the farm price guarantee and rice price subsidy programmes, were all focused only on providing financial assistance," he said.

"None of them mentioned how to increase rice production per rai or to strengthen the trade competitiveness of farmers. Moreover, these policies opened opportunities for corruption."

Source: Bangkok Post