The government yesterday approved the sale of 755,000 tonnes of rice stocks to 11 winning bidders for a combined 7.2 billion baht.
According to Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha approved the amount in his capacity as chairman of the National Rice Policy and Management Committee.
The sale accounted for 74.8% of the 1 million tonnes put up at the latest auction.
Of the 755,000 tonnes approved, 702,615 is for human consumption and 52,397 is for industrial use.
The Foreign Trade Department called a bid last month to sell a combined 1 million tonnes of state rice stocks.
Interested bidders proposed their qualifications on Aug 25 and submitted bid prices on Aug 29.
Ms Duangporn said the department may call another bid to sell outstanding rice stocks ahead of new supply from the annual harvest season, which starts in November.
She said Thailand will vie to sell more rice to the Philippines and to Indonesia after winning a bid last month to supply 100,000 tonnes of 25% white rice to the Philippines at US$424.85 a tonne.
The Philippine delivery is scheduled for September and October. Vietnam also won a bid to supply 150,000 tonnes at the same price.
The auction, the first under the two-month-old government of President Rodrigo Duterte, is part of plans to import up to 1 million tonnes of rice to secure supplies of the staple through next year while prices are low.
Of the total, 750,000 tonnes will be purchased through government-to-government deals and 250,000 tonnes will be imported by private companies.
Under government-to-government transactions, the Philippines usually buys rice from Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia.
Nonetheless, the planned rice purchase, if it goes forward, will be smaller than the Philippines' imported volume of 1.8 million tonnes for 2015.
The government currently controls less than 9 million tonnes in state stocks, a sharp drop from 18.7 million tonnes accumulated through various rice-pledging schemes during 2011-14.
The government remains confident about disposing of all state rice stocks next year.