BANGKOK, July 4: Not a single Thai rice futures contract was traded on Monday as investors waited for the government to decide what to do with its huge stocks, brokers said. There was no factor to move the market and no one wanted to take any positions until they know what the government will do with its stocks, said one broker
Most supplies were drained into government stocks and the rest kept by millers and neither has said what they would do with it, said another broker.
The government is sitting on 5 million tons of paddy, equivalent to 3 million tons of milled rice, bought from farmers since November to keep domestic prices up in the world’s largest exporter of rice.
The Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) said it would ask the government to make its intentions clear if few contracts for 5 per cent white rice were traded on Tuesday.
If tomorrow goes the same way as today, we would ask the government to do something at least to clarify what it would do or not do with its stocks, a spokeswoman said.
Brokers said futures prices were likely to stay trapped in the range of 10.62-10.76 baht per kg for weeks in line with the physical market due to tight supply.
