Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, said the first 1-million-tonne shipment under the agreement had been completed midyear. After requesting a suspension of its rice imports, and it now seems ready for the second lot.

She said the Thai government would continue to ship the rice in small lots of 100,000 tonnes per month, as previously. Chinese and Thai officials are discussing the details of the shipments and should soon be able to get them started soon.

During the second lot of shipments, Thailand also expects that China will negotiate the import of another 1 million tonnes of rice from Thailand in the future, Duangporn said.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry is confident of getting all the paperwork completed before the deadline next February for its legal action demanding compensation from four politicians and two former government officials involved in a fake government-to-government rice deal.

Duangporn said the ministry needed a long time to study the legal procedures carefully as it is a sensitive case that involves several agencies.

In addition, the ministry reported that 13 rice traders joined the fifth auction of the year for 750,000 tonnes of rice. If the government accepts their bids and sells this stock, it could generate Bt7.4 billion in sales value.

Moreover, 10 bidders have joined the auction for 255,000 tonnes of low-grade rice for the industrial sector. The ministry will consider their bids soon.

About 9.1 million tonnes of rice remain in the government stockpiles, including the latest lots put up for auction. As of August 26, Thailand has exported 6.3 million tonnes of rice this year, worth Bt99 billion, up by 8.2 per cent in volume and 6 per cent in value over the same period last year.