The government has sold 426,977 tonnes of rice worth 6.29 billion baht in its latest auction.
Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said authorities agreed to sell that amount from 50 warehouses to 47 qualified bidders.
That represents 63.9% of the 668,228 tonnes of rice put up for the fifth auction, which was called yesterday.
The grains are mainly 5% white rice, Thai Hom Mali fragrant rice, white broken rice and Thai Hom Mali broken rice.
The outcome will be submitted to Commerce Minister Chatchai Sarikulya for consideration and the National Rice Policy Committee for final approval.
Since Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha took office, the Commerce Ministry has held nine auctions including five this year in order to speed up disposal of 18 million tonnes of state stocks accumulated from rice-pledging schemes.
It has sold 4.4 million tonnes for 48.6 billion baht.
However, the government has fetched an average of only 10,000 baht per tonne of milled rice from the auctions, far below the 24,000 baht a tonne spent by the previous government for pledging excluding management costs and interest rates.
Losses incurred from the auctions are estimated at a minimum of 55 billion baht.
After the latest auction, the government now holds 13.9 million tonnes of rice, 5.8 million of which are categorised as low-quality and rotten, while 8-9 million tonnes have been dubbed Grade P, meaning it has passed ministry certification and is a mix of Grades A and B. Grades A and B are defined as in slightly poor condition and in need of sorting out for improvement.
Gen Chatchai said responsible authorities would next week finalise ways to deal with low-quality and rotten grains.
Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the government's rice auction drew prices similar to market prices. Quick rice auctions also lower government expenses in keeping rice stocks, worth 46 million baht per day.
"The government's auctions fetched just above 10 baht a kilogramme, close to the market price of 11-12 baht per kg," Mr Charoen said.
In the first half of this year, Thailand shipped 4.46 million tonnes of rice, down 4.7%, worth US$2.21 billion. Nigeria was the largest importer of Thai rice at 475,362 tonnes, up by 105% year-on-year, followed by the Philippines at 422,110 tonnes (up 255%) and China at 361,106 tonnes (up 9%).