Secret sales below cost

 A huge loss will be incurred if the transaction goes through. Although the volume to be released has not been revealed, the offer is quoted at Bt16.20 per kilogram compared with the government’s cost of Bt23. It was reported that 4.5 million tonnes of rice from the latest harvest are sitting in government warehouses.
The source from rice traders, who was contacted by a member of the Pheu Thai Party, said the ministry has tried to unload the latest stocks of rice from the 2011-12 main crop to local traders and millers in Saraburi.
The ministry’s stealthy sales strategy has raised fears its low offers will affect the market price, which was to be pushed up as high as the government’s target after it implemented the high-price subsidy policy.
“The secretive releases give a double chance to politicians and traders to earn money,” the source said.
The government had already secretly released 300,000 tonnes of its stockpile when Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong controlled the Commerce Ministry. Siam Indiga seized the biggest slices of the pie to ship to Indonesia.
At Bt11-Bt12 per kilogram, Siam Indiga enjoyed a much lower price than the market price of Bt15. The government claimed it was a fair price as the rice was old.
The unfair practice has led to corruption by politicians and unscrupulous traders since only a few officials are involved in the trading process. Few people know about the rice-releasing procedures and the exact price offered, the source said.
Another rice-exporting source said the recent rice shipment of 70,000 tonnes by Siam Indiga to Indonesia was rejected by the Indonesian government due to lower quality than stated in the contracts.
Siam Indiga now has to deliver a new lot of rice to Indonesia, the source said. The firm sent the rejected rice to Africa. The 70,000 tonnes of rice is part of the 300,000 tonnes that the company won in total from the Commerce Ministry.
Siam Indiga is known as a new marketing arm of bankrupt President Agri Trading, the country’s biggest rice exporter during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration.
The top executive of President Agri Trading, Apichart Jansakulporn, has close relations with the ousted prime minister.