BANGKOK: Sup Saeng Thong Rice and Sahatan have won the auction for rice that dates back to Yingluck Shinawatra’s rice-pledging scheme
The Commerce Ministry announced on Friday (July 19) that two companies have won the bid for the 10-year-old rice stored under a rice-pledging scheme dating back to the Yingluck government. The stored rice is worth a total of 244.7 million baht in value.
Sup Saeng Thong Rice, a Suphan Buri-based rice mill, secured the bid for 11,656 tonnes of rice from the Kittichai warehouse at 182 million baht, or 15,617 baht per tonne.
Meanwhile, Nakhon Pathom-based rice mill, Sahatan, won the bid for 3,356 tonnes of rice stored at the Poolphol Trading warehouse at 62.7 million or 18,690 baht per tonne.
This announcement follows concerns about V8 Intertrading Ltd, a Kamphaeng Phet company that previously won the auction, whose financial records showed a registered capital of just 2 million baht.
The company’s operating budget was between 1 and 2 million baht, while its accumulated debt came to 13 million baht. However, V8 Intertrading had offered 286 million baht or about 19.07 baht per kilo for rice at both warehouses.
Thawatchai U-saengthong, owner of Sup Saeng Thong Rice, told Thansettakij news outlet that the Public Warehouse Organisation had summoned the company for price negotiations on Thursday as the fourth bid winner.
“Our company confirmed the original price it had proposed on June 17,” he said, adding that he expects the purchase contract to be finalised next week.
Thawatchai added that the company plans to use the rice to produce pet food for export, and expressed confidence in the grain’s quality because his company has expertise in improving the state of rice.
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was slapped with a five-year sentence in September 2017 after being found guilty of negligence in overseeing her government’s rice-pledging scheme, which offered farmers double the market price for their crop. Irregularities in the scheme, combined with a collapse in the global rice price, are believed to have cost the state more than 37 billion baht.
Yingluck faced trial under the junta after her Pheu Thai-led government was ousted in a military-led coup in 2014, but she fled the country before the verdict was delivered.
Speculation is growing that Yingluck may return to Thailand, following in the footsteps of her brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who returned last year after 15 years of self-exile. This comes after Pheu Thai Party regained power following last year’s general election. - The Straits Times/ANN
