Adul Chotinisakorn, director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce , said the department had cleared all of the remaining stock under the present administration from May 2014 to December last year.

As a result, the government no longer bears the storage cost of more than Bt1 billion per month. Furthermore, the sales will normalise rice production, trade and prices according to market mechanism, while Thailand will gain the confidence of local and foreign consumers, he said.

The practice of using the government’s rice stockpile to pressure rice prices in new production seasons will end and farmers will now earn what they should, he said.

With the total sales of government stock, Thailand exported 11.13 million tonnes of rice as targeted in 2018, down 3.36 per cent from the previous year, while rice export value rose 4.5 per cent to US$5.62 billion or about Bt180.41 billion for the year.

“Although rice export declined in quantity, prices have increased in both US dollar and baht with no pressure from rice stockpile,” Adul said.

Buyers were not able to assert pressure on rice prices and the Thai market has returned to normal, he said, adding that the department was not involved in the legal lawsuit related to the rice pledging project.

The country is expected to see a slight decline in rice exports next year, but the amount is projected to be no less than 10 million tonnes.

Rice prices are forecast to improve and the department will promote the exports of premium rice such as Hom Mali rice, Thai colour rice, organic rice as well as innovative rice products, Adul said. Thailand is the champion in the exports of premium grade rice.

The department will expand sales in major markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, as well as the Middle East, the Europe, the United States and Canada. In regard to the government-to-government (G2G) rice sale with China , the department will deliver all 100,000 tonnes of rice under the deal this month.