The National Rice Policy and Management Committee on Tuesday approved the sale of 780,000 tonnes of rice from government supplies to 23 bidders, placing the value at 7 billion baht.
Thirty-one buyers joined the bidding on May 19 to buy 1.17 million tonnes of rice for 10 billion baht, but only 23 were qualified, said Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department.
The approved price was between 11,050-11,500 baht per tonne for 5% white rice, 7,019-9,200 baht per tonne for A1 broken rice and 7,500-9,200 baht per tonne for broken fragrant rice.
"The approved prices are suitable to the current domestic and overseas rice market. This sale of the government's rice stocks will send a positive signal to the uptrend rice price," she said.
She said that from May 22, 2014 to May 29 of this year the government sold a total of 5.48 million tonnes of rice for industrial use valued at 58.3 billion baht via 13 bids.