The Commerce Ministry is projecting that Thailand should be able to get this year's rice-export total up to 8.5 million tonnes, earning as much as US$5.7 billion (Bt183 billion), thanks to efforts by both the government and private exporters.

The announcement came after the Foreign Trade Department reported that it was able to release 615,000 tonnes of rice via a recent auction, earning up to Bt12.3 billion.

Surasak Riangkrul, director-general of the department, said rice exports should begin to recover this quarter, as many government-to-government and private contracts were awaiting shipment before the end of this year. The recovery should continue next year.

He added that the department is projected to export at least 8 million tonnes of rice worth US$4.8 billion.

The average price of exported Thai rice is about $600 a tonne. That is much lower than the cost of pledging, for which the price should be about $750-$800 a tonne for white rice.

Between the beginning of the year and November 20, Thailand was able to export 5.68 million tonnes of rice worth $3.81 billion.

That export volume was down by 8.78 per cent year on year, and its value decreased by 10.16 per cent in US dollar terms, or by 12.64 per cent in baht terms.

Surasak said the Commerce Ministry would continue to release rice via general auctions to Thai exporters and domestic traders to clear out stockpiles and earn more money to offset the losses from the rice-pledging project.

The department is projected to earn up to Bt30 billion in the current fourth quarter, enabling the ministry reimburse Bt200 billion to the Finance Ministry under the rice-pledging project.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association showed that the price of Thai jasmine rice had dropped since November 13 from $1,097 a tonne to $1,048 as of November 27. But the price of Thai 5 per cent white rice rose from $433 to $442 a tonne during the same two-week period.

Korbsook Iamsuri, president of the association, said rice exports should end up at 7 million tonnes this year, better than the previous forecast of 6.5 million tonnes thanks to higher demand from the Philippines and Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry's state-owned Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) yesterday insisted that the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had not behaved corruptly under the cheap-rice project, as alleged by a Democrat MP during this week's censure debate in the House of Representatives.

PWO president Chanudpakorn Vongseenin said the rice-sale process was transparent and alleged irregularities were promptly investigated.

He said no rice had gone missing as alleged under the project. Of the 2.5 million tonnes of rice that had been approved for the discount programme, only 590,000 tonnes had so far been processed. The rest remained in the

Source: The Nation