China has signed an agreement to purchase 1.2 million tonnes of Thai rice and 90,000 tonnes of tapioca, Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan said on Wednesday.
Thailand agrees to sell 1.2 million tonnes of rice to China. The agreement was signed by Foreign Trade Department director-general Surasak Riangkrul and a representative of China's Great Northern Wilderness rice industry group on Wednesday. (Post Today Photo)
Mr Niwatthamrong said the agreement was signed by Foreign Trade Department director-general Surasak Riangkrul and a representative of China's Great Northern Wilderness rice industry group.
The delivery of the two commodities is scheduled for December.
China has expressed interest in buying agricultural products from Thailand to serve increasing demand from Chinese people, including rice, tapioca and rubber, he said, adding that China also wants to co-invest in the agricultural product processing industry with private Thai firms.
Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
The minister said Thailand is poised to become an agricultural industry production base for export to China and other nearby countries and is ready to be China’s connecting gateway to wider trade with other Asean countries.
China will be able to access markets in Asean member countries with a combined population of more than 550 million when the Asean Economic community debuts in late 2015, he said.
Despite the success of the Thai-Chinese government-to-government rice contract, the Ministry of Commerce is still struggling to shift rice-pledging scheme stockpiles at auction.
Only four companies took part in bidding to buy rice under the scheme on Tuesday, Nov 19. The companies are Royal Richy Rice, Capital Serial, Asia Golden Rice and Charoen Pokphan.
Mr Surasak said the Commerce Ministry had opened six rounds of bidding to allow companies to purchase rice since the beginning of the year, leading to the sale of 800,000 tonnes of rice out of a total of two million tonnes offered for auction.
Despite limited success selling the rice at auction, the ministry has sold a total of eight million tonnes of rice to other countries through government-to-government purchasing deals since midway through this year, he said.
The Ministry of Finance has already recouped 140 billion baht from the proceeds and another 24 billion baht will be sent to the ministry by the end of the year, Mr Surasak said.
Rice exports from Jan 1 to Nov 5 totalled 5.6 million tonnes, with a total worth of US$3.8 billion, or about 114 billion baht. The volume of exports dropped by 3% while the value of exports fell 5%, the director-general said.