Bidders concerned about Govt rice quality
Rice exporters are questioning the rice quality and the bidding procedures as they could be faced with losses after winning the bidding.
Kobsook Iamsuri, president of Thai Rice Exporters Association, told The Nation in a telephone interview yesterday that exporters were concerned about the rice quality in the government warehouses, especially as the bidding involved a big lot. Although the stockpile may be from the last year’s harvest season, there might be degradation in quality.
He said exporters hope to see more transparent bidding procedures through announcing the offered price publicly on the bidding day. This will allow the winners to prepare and plan their cash flow while disqualified bidders could focus on their businesses instead of waiting anxiously.
"With 30 bidders this time – small to big-sized companies – there should not be any unfair practice," said Kobsook, adding the offered price should not be Bt17,000 per tonne as that is the market price. Nobody will offer as high as Bt18,000, he said.
The Commerce Ministry will sell 753,000 tonnes through the bidding process.
The government will consider gradually releasing more rice from its stockpiles by opening the auction soon before December 31 after gauging that the stock release has not created a negative impact on rice price while demand remains high amidst a drought problem.
After a five-hour meeting of the working committee on release of the rice stocks yesterday, Manus Soiploy, director-general at the Foreign Trade Department, said that the ministry is quite satisfied with the offered prices. "Due to various offered prices, some winners may take a big lot of white rice but not the whole bidding lot of 210,000 tonnes," Manus said.
The final bidding results, particularly the price, will be proposed to Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom on Monday to make the final decision.
"The selling price should be close to the market price. The government would not sell rice below production cost," said Manus.
As of August 30, the market price of 5 per cent white rice is quoted at Bt17,400-Bt17,500 a tonne, while jasmine rice is traded at Bt32,500-Bt32,800 a tonne. The price of provincial fragrant rice is at Bt30,500-Bt30,600, and the price of Pathum Thani rice is at Bt27,900-Bt28,000 per tonne.
Sompong Kittireanglarp, president of Ponglarb, one of 30 bidders, said that he has increased his offer by about Bt3,000 for jasmine rice under the bargaining process due to the higher price in the market. However, the firm has maintained its price for 5-per-cent white rice at Bt16,500 as that was closer to the market price.
Ponglarb has offered to purchase about 12,000 tonnes of rice from the government’s stocks.
