COMMODITIES / OVERSEAS TRADE

Government plans to sell rice to countries in Africa, Middle East

PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

Thailand plans to sell more rice under government-to-government deals to the Middle East and African countries or in areas where private companies have difficulty gaining access, according to the Foreign Trade Department.

Director-general Apiradi Tantraporn said the Middle East and Africa accounted for 60% of Thailand's rice exports of 7.4 million tonnes last year, but that more market potential remained.

Nigeria last year bought 2.5 million tonnes of rice, most of it parboiled, and is also a gateway to distribute rice to other countries in western Africa.

But now more countries in Africa are consuming higher-grade white rice, which offers a chance for the government to sell down its large stockpile of three million tonnes of the grain, said Ms Apiradi.

She named Liberia and Tunisia as two potential buyers in Africa, which accounted for 47% of all rice shipped from Thailand last year.

Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet is scheduled to visit Tunisia next month to negotiate a government-to-government rice deal. The country last year imported 20,000 tonnes of parboiled and white rice from Thailand.

Iraq and Iran are major markets in the Middle East and are open to purchasing rice from both private traders and the government, according to Mrs Apiradi.

The government is sitting on a huge stockpile of rice built up over the past two harvest seasons, the legacy of a Thaksin administration intervention programme that offered farmers prices far above market levels.

Officials have been trying to offload the rice to reduce storage costs. Last month, the department sold 200,000 tonnes of white rice to the Philippines and it will enter more bids to supply Indonesia and the Philippines next month.

Mrs Apiradi also said that seven traders had bid to improve the quality of 200,000 tonnes for delivery to the Philippines from next month through May. They offered an average of 1,320 baht to 1,328 baht a tonne for the improvement.

Thailand News : Business News
Bangkok Post
Friday January 26, 2007