Philippines Agrees To Buy Up To 1 Mln Tonnes Of White Rice A Year From Thailand

By Piyarat Nisangkard BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- Thailand's ruling military junta has agreed to an agreement that will allow Philippines to buy up to one million tonnes of white rice from the country annually for the 2014-2016 period. The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) spokesperson, Yongyuth Maiyarap, said the NCPO approved the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Thai and Philippine governments, effective from this year to Dec 31, 2016. The Ministry of Commerce's official or representative had been authorised to sign the agreement, Yongyuth said. The previous MoA expired on December 31 last year. The amount of rice depends on the world's rice market and yield of both countries, and will be based on market price at the time of the transactions. The MoA also allows Thailand to participate in any bidding to sell rice to the Philippines, which have been steadily increasing the purchase of white rice from Thailand. It bought 120,000 tonnes of white rice from Thailand in 2012 and 680,000 tonnes last year. This year, Thailand expects the Philippines' total import of white rice to be about 1.45 million tonnes. -- BERNAMA