Thailand hopes to sell 5 million tonnes of rice mainly to African countries in the second half of the year under government-to-government deals.

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said Guinea has signed an agreement to purchase 200,000 tonnes of 25% white rice from Thailand over the next three years while Ivory Coast agreed to buy 240,000 tonnes to be delivered in six months.

Thailand signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to sell roughly 1 million tonnes of rice each to Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines but the final order size would be known after the harvest season in each country.

Thailand also offers to sell 2 million tonnes of rice to China, which may want rice for donation to other countries.

With these orders, the ministry is optimistic that 5 million tonnes would be sold in the second half this year.

Manat Soiploy, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said Ivory Coast also wanted to buy 1 million tonnes of rice per year for five years. An MoU will likely be signed after the Thai cabinet approves it.

He said the government is in the process of selling 300,000-500,000 tonnes of parboiled rice to Bangladesh, to be delivered by the private sector.

The government invited an Indonesian delegation to visit Thailand next week. Indonesia faces a severe shortage of rice this year and needs to import around 2 million tonnes.

The department will seek approval to release up to 1 million tonnes of its stock after it has sold only 200,000 tonnes earlier. He declined to reveal the size of government's stock but insisted that it is below 10 million tonnes.

But the Internal Trade Department's data showed the government had in its stock 9.4 million tonnes of paddy from the second crop and 6.8 million tonnes from the main crop as of Wednesday.

The Office of Agricultural Economics has urged the government speed up the sale before the new harvest season that starts in November.

Apichart Jongskul, secretary-general of the office, forecast paddy output from the 2012/2013 crop would be as high as 24 million tonnes, of which 10 million would enter the pledging programme.

"It was reported that the government now carries about 12 million tonnes of rice, equivalent to 18 million tonnes of paddy," he said.

Source: Bangkok Post