The government will call bids for another 1.395 million tonnes of high-quality rice from state stocks and sell the first lot of 1.3 million tonnes of poor-quality rice for ethanol production early next month.
Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the auction for high-quality rice would cover white, broken, glutinous, glutinous broken, Hom Mali broken and Pathum Thani fragrant rice now stored in warehouses of the Marketing Organization for Farmers and the Public Warehouse Organization.
The Commerce Ministry has scheduled July 7 for bids.
Banjongjitt Angsusingh, deputy director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the widespread drought was expected to draw high purchase demand.
However, a source from Capital Cereals Co said the auction for high-quality rice was likely to draw less interest, as it was too close to the recent one that sold 840,000 tonnes, fetching 7.8 billion baht.
Since Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha took office, the Commerce Ministry has held seven auctions to speed up disposal of 18 million tonnes of state stocks accumulated from rice-pledging schemes.
It has sold 3 million tonnes for 30 billion baht.
As of June 15, Thailand had shipped 3.9 million tonnes of rice this year, fetching 64.2 billion baht, down by 8% year-on-year.
Commerce Minister Chatchai Sarikulya said the government would early next month start selling poor-quality rice through general auctions to ethanol and animal feed producers, starting with a first lot of 1.3 million tonnes next Wednesday.
The low-quality grade-C rice is no longer fit for human consumption.