Thailand plans to sell rice from its stockpiles to seven trading-partner countries under government-to-government (G2G) contracts, Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol said.

One of the seven countries |is Indonesia. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra recently signed a memorandum of |understanding with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the Asean Summit to sell 1 million tonnes of rice annually.

"Each of the seven countries has offered to purchase about 300,000 to 1 million tonnes of rice from Thailand," Poom said.

However, the government declined to name the countries and the period of trading, fearing a drop in the price of rice.

Poom said the government would have enough rice for exports under G2G contracts and other trading channels as it has stockpiles and more rice is entering the government's stocks under the pledging project.

It was reported that the government currently has about 2 million tonnes of rice in its warehouses. The Commerce Ministry reported that about 600,000 tonnes of paddy rice had been pledged to stocks to date, below government expectations because of the severe floods.

The pledging project started on October 7 and will last until the end of February. The government is expecting more than 10 million tonnes of paddy rice to enter its stocks under the project.

To promote Thai rice, Poom |said he would lead Thai exporters to visit major trading countries such as Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia to seek more |opportunities next year.

Meanwhile, Thai rice exporters complained that exports had seen a sharp drop since October after the government launched the pledging project, pushing up the price of Thai rice.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said Thai rice was now more expensive than the equivalent Vietnamese variety by US$50 per tonne.

In the first half of this month, the volume of Thai rice shipment was down by 44 per cent to only 242,850 tonnes. Thailand is expected to export only 400,000 tonnes of rice this month.

Chookiat said Thailand was expected to export about 10.5 million tonnes of rice this year, down from the previous target of 11 million tonnes.

Thailand exported 9.8 million tonnes of rice from January to November 15.

Source: The Nation