Thailand to sell 400,000 tonnes of rice to China this month

[webfact]

Thailand to sell 400,000 tonnes of rice to China this month
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, March 1 – China has initially agreed to buy 400,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand, pending an official contract this month, said caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan.

He said the Foreign Trade Department director general informed of the success in rice sales on a government-to-government basis to China upon his return from the country.

He said the Chinese government also accepted a proposal that the rice purchase agreement could be changed in case the new Thai government takes office.

He said the Commerce Ministry could release 110,000 tonnes through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) yesterday, contributing to total sales of 800,000 tonnes through February.

Money will gradually come in from the rice sales at about Bt8 billion a month, he said, adding that the government would have nearly Bt50 billion, including borrowing from the central fund, to pay farmers for the rice pledging scheme this month. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-03-01

[aguy30]

Great news. Now only 15.6 MILLION tons are left in the stockpile for the insects, birds and rats to eat.

Once again the report did not say at what price the government sold the rice and from which crop. Wonder if they discounted for mold, insects, dead rats and birds or maybe there was a surcharge for the higher protein percentage.

The 2011-12 crop can't be worth much on the world market. Most of the oldest crop is probably not salable to any country for human consumption. I would guess that might be 30%.

Edited March 1, 2014 by aguy30

[Thait Spot]

The mould is free apparently

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[Costas2008]

Is this frozen or unfrozen rice?

[ginjag]

Is this frozen or unfrozen rice?

Freebies, LICE--MICE- maybe VICE,

[bigbamboo]

"Initially agreed; proposal; could; pending; maybe; gradually" . All very positive stuff we've heard before.

If 'ifs' and 'and 'ands' were pots and pans..........

[Peabody]

Wasn't it a MILLION tons just YESTERDAY?

[Rob8891]

Falling well short of their targets, as usual. I hope real farmers can survive on fake promises.

[ginjag]

Wasn't it a MILLION tons just YESTERDAY?

We have to acknowledge, EVERY day is a NEW day here.

So many twists and turns, unpredictable as a viper. Until right and wrong are taught, nothing will change.

Just these 2 words are the remedy --problem the wrongs outweigh the rights and pointing out wrongs can get people in deep trouble. Posters here trying to point out the wrongs we see in government are shot down with excuses, blame others is the main response.

[culicine]

I'll believe it when I see it....as usual the poor farmers take it up the arse.

[ramrod711]

The farmers are going to be paid last october, i mean last week, i'm not really sure when, but i know Yingluck wouldn't lie. She speaks very softly and cries often, so she must be a good person.

[yang123]

Once again the report did not say at what price the government sold the rice and from which crop. Wonder if they discounted for mold, insects, dead rats and birds or maybe there was a surcharge for the higher protein percentage.

Just a hunch: The Chinese followed standard PRC commercial practice, i.e. signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' - non-binding statement of principle and a commitment only to future detailed pricing/delivery discussions.

No fat ladies singing.

[Scamper]

They still approval for this from the EC.

[bubblegum]

"Thailand to sell to China"

Is this news or like automated sms messages one gets on a phone ?

[noitom]

What was the price per ton? Was this Thai rice packaged up with or without the vermin?

[h90]

Great news. Now only 15.6 MILLION tons are left in the stockpile for the insects, birds and rats to eat.

Once again the report did not say at what price the government sold the rice and from which crop. Wonder if they discounted for mold, insects, dead rats and birds or maybe there was a surcharge for the higher protein percentage.

The 2011-12 crop can't be worth much on the world market. Most of the oldest crop is probably not salable to any country for human consumption. I would guess that might be 30%.

Lets call it enriched high protein rice. Or bioactive rice.

2011 crop you can use to make gasohol, Thailand will be hub of gasohol.

[ginjag]

Pending a contract being signed, contract will have to state NO old rice, NO contaminated rice. Money to be paid in stages, rice first -payment after inspection.

[Peabody]

Wasn't it a MILLION tons just YESTERDAY?

Yesterday:

"G2G

Govt eyes income from 1m-tonne G2G China rice sale

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The caretaker government has high hopes of bringing in some funding from the sale of 1 million tonnes of rice from the state stockpile via a government-to-government deal to pay what it owes farmers under the pledging programme.

The rice sale would help speed up payments to farmers, as only one bidder showed up yesterday when the Finance Ministry opened the bidding for its Bt20 billion promissory notes (PN).

An industry source said the Chinese government could sign an agreement for the deal in the next few weeks depending on the Thai government's readiness.

The source said the G2G deal must be done with China's state-owned enterprise COFCO as the Thai government's counterpart. However, the deal should not be finalised in short.

"Still, the government is yet to seek the Election Commission’s approval for the deal, as this is considered an obligation of the new government," said Surasak Riangkrul, director general of Department of Foreign Trade.

Meanwhile, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) on Thursday agreed to set up "Farmer Assistance Funds" for temporary relief to the unpaid farmers. There will be three funds: one from donations, one interest-free, and a third that is expected to provide a return on investment, for which the BAAC will pay interest of 0.63 per cent per annum.

BAAC president Luck Wajananawat said the bank projected receiving about Bt20 billion in donations and investments from those wanting to help the unpaid farmers.

The funds will be open for donations and investment from March 10 to June 30, while payments should be able to reach farmers from March 10 until the end of the year. The BAAC will manage the funds transparently and should get some return for investors from rice sales or loans by the end of the year, Luck said.

Minimum investment to each fund (except donations, for which there is no minimum) is set at Bt1,000.

The BAAC will allocate initial investment capital worth Bt100 million from its own resources, from which it expects to earn no interest. The bank will also allocate Bt10 million from its central budget to advertise the project.

A group of farmers yesterday gathered in front of the United Nations building on Rajdamnoen Avenue, while waiting to submit a petition to HM the King asking for the royal assistance.

The payment could be further delayed as the Public Debt Management Office yesterday had a difficulty in finding the buyers of the eight-month PN.

Several state enterprises were reluctant to join the bidding, fearing that it could violate a constitutional clause that a caretaker government should not embark on recurring debt. It was not disclosed which who was the only bidder for the financial paper."

[moe666]

Rice hoarders they are rice sellers they are not

[dcutman]

Has China taken possession of one grain of rice from the 7.5 million tons they supposedly bought from Thailand in the last 2 or 3 years?

[SamMunich]

If we can believe the figures given in the NATION (see TV "rice farmers now reliant opn 'low' market prices), then we have 1.91 million farmers, who participate in the pledging, out of which 550,000 got paid and 1.36 million are still waiting.

Now when the government claims it will pay farmers, EVERY SINGLE FARMER will think HE is certainly amon those that get paid. And until he knows better, he will keep his mouth shut. That is the policy of the government to stop protests. And why they will always say, more money will be coming forward in short time. But the farmers will get short-changed.

A newspaper headline blared "Farmers get paid" and it turns out these farmers were something like a few thousand among the 1.36 million unpaid farmers. Did that newspaper get a new substantial advertising job from a government supporting company? That is something like 2 in 10,000 farmers! From 700 million Baht out of 130 billion Baht due.

I really wonder, where all the farmers are, that were so vocal about getting paid "by the end of next week"? I can't imagine, that so many of them are so stupid to believe the governments claim to pay out all of them in the next few days or weeks. From what money? From re-allocating the salary budget of the civil servants in Thailand? From getting the 60 billion back, that were syphoned off via Hong Kong?

[IMA_FARANG]

It would be nice to believe hem, but as I recall there was a "government to government" sale before which:

1. In fact wasn't a "government to government" sale .... it was in fact "sold" to a commercial non-government company in China
2. No invoices or shipping documents were ever produced to verify this "sale" of supposed rice from the stockpile.
3. No pictorial or documentary evidence was ever produced that this rice was ever sold.
4. For that matter no evidence was ever produced that the so-called rice ever actually existed even before the "sale".
5. There is no evidence that the so-called rice was ever shipped, or that the funds to buy this alleged rice were ever transferred to Thailand.

Given that previous sale, and the doubts that it ever actually happened, you must forgive me for not believing this "sale" was any more legit than the other one.

As the saying goes, "Cheat me once, the blame on you, cheat me twice the blame on me."

[Melyn]

Wasn't it a MILLION tons just YESTERDAY?

They had to pick all the muck out

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[JesseFrank]

China has initially agreed to buy 400,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand, pending an official contract this month, said caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan.

I'm sure I have seen an identical statement by the same minsiter at least 6 times over as many months, only the figures differ each time.

[Crushdepth]

Let's see the contract, thanks.

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[zakk9]

At the price they are currently selling, 8,000 baht per ton, if they get that much from the Chinese, that's 3.2 billion baht. If they manage to sell all of, say 16 million tons, at that price, they'll get 128 billion baht, more or less enough to pay the farmers. But that is if there really is 16 million tons of reasonably useable rice in those warehouses. The only thing that remains then is a tiny, little loan of around 600 billion baht or whatever it is now. That's the entire amount of personal income tax in Thailand for three straight years.

The farmers are back in the mud, tax payers pick up the bill, a bunch of PTP politicians and their friends can sit back and enjoy their new fleet of luxury cars and foreign investments. There are some good reasons why people in Bangkok took to the streets.

[aimbc]

It will be interesting on how much good rice is left to sell to the Chinese Government. This will also break the deal if the quality of rice is substandard to Vietnamese rice.

This government really have to disclose the numbers quickly. Taxpayers have the right to know. Using democratic means to set the policy, but using ditatorship to hide the fact. Hardly a functioning form of democracy.

[easybullet3]

I dont understand why China would want to buy rice?

dont they grow it (in larger quantities than Thailand???)

or is it like UK Natural Gas? (they sell it abroad for a high price and then buy-in cheap stuff?)

[chainarong]

Corrupt meeting another corrupt totalitarian outfit, what about doing a great trade with a strong western democratic country.

[Thai at Heart]

To china who, where, and what?

It's a big place....