More than 660,000 tonnes of rice will be put up for auction on Aug 11, from the huge stockpile accumulated under the rice pledging scheme of the previous government, the Commerce Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said 11 types of rice totalling 668,228 tonnes would be offered to buyers. The rice is now kept in warehouses under the Public Warehouse Organisation and the Marketing Organisation for Farmers.
The bidders have to submit documents on Aug 10. Bidders who qualified would be announced at 8.30am on Aug 11 and woud be able to submit bids until noon that day. The winners would be announced the same day.
As of June 30, the ministry had a total of 15.11 million tonnes of rice in the stockpile, in three categories.
The first group comprised 9.15 million tonnes of edible rice -- 1.82 million tonnes of grade A and B rice, and 7.33 million tonnes of grade A and B rice mixed with grade C rice.
The second group of 5.89 million tonnes of grade C rice comprised 4.6 million tonnes of degradable rice and 1.29 million tonnes of inedible rice which was crumbling to powder.
The third category consisted of about 70,000 tonnes of rice which the ministry was still examining and grading.
In early July, the ministry sold 1.148 million tonnes of rice for 12.08 billion baht.
The ministry announced earlier that much of the rice to be auctioned would likely to bought for production of ethanol.
Ms Duangporn said the ministry had organised eight auctions of rice under the government led by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, selling 3.88 million tonnes for a return of about 40.95 billion baht.