Commerce Ministry asked to study price details of India rice deal

The Commerce Ministry will handle a request from India to buy 2 million tonnes of 25% white rice from Thailand on a government-to-government basis.

Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu said the government needed to consider the price for the deal very carefully because India wanted to buy a large amount of the grain.

A government source said Thai rice would be priced about $30 a tonne higher than for rice from Vietnam. However, there is an opportunity to sell at a lower price under an assistance programme.

Mr Korbsak said that because rice prices had been increasing, the ministry had been instructed to announce reference prices every 10 days instead of every 15 days in order to widen opportunities for farmers to get better prices.

He said the Rice Policy Committee also approved bringing 400,000 tonnes of short-cycle rice from the 2009-10 crop into the government's options programme at a price equivalent to 10,000 baht a tonne.

The government next year will not allow short-cycle rice in the options programme because it wants farmers to grow better-quality rice.