Nervous_Dog Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 Buried in the newspaper, gee, only billions of baht lost AGRICULTURE / GOVERNMENT INVENTORY New round of rice auctions to begin next week to drain stocks PHUSADEE ARUNMAS The Commerce Ministry will next week sell a total of 821,000 tonnes of rice as part of its bid to offload the government's stockpile of four million tonnes. The auction will start with the 556,000 tonnes the authorities took from President Agri Trading Co after it had failed to export what it won in auctions three years ago, according to Deputy Commerce Minister Oranuj Osathananda, who met the committee overseeing the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) yesterday. President Agri Trading won all of the contracts for 1.78 million tonnes of rice conducted by the ministry in 2004 but has exported only 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes. The company officially shut down its 650-million-baht integrated rice-silo operation in Phichit last week under the weight of accumulated debts of billions of baht. A number of banks, including BankThai, Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank and Krung Thai Bank have filed or are preparing to file civil suits for claims on their loans from the company. President Agri Trading owes around 9.5 billion baht and has a combined credit line of 12 billion with nine leading banks, including TMB Bank. According to a source from the rice industry, President Agri also owed another 600 million baht to rice mills. The PWO is also facing trouble on another front, following the discovery on Saturday that about one million tonnes of rice being stored on its behalf went missing from a warehouse in Phichit province, resulting in losses of about 63 million baht. Mrs Oranuj said security would be beefed up at warehouses contracted to the PWO to prevent further thefts. A total of 54,675 sacks of rice were taken from a warehouse of Racha Kaset Rice Mill Co Ltd, owned by Amnuay Khathanyarun-grueng, in Phichit's Taphan Hin district. Police on Sunday seized the missing rice, as well as eleven 18-wheel trailer-trucks used to transport it, from another warehouse in the same district also owned by Mr Amnuay, who was then arrested. Police said the heist took six days, starting on Aug 13. Pisut Chalakornkul, the president of the PWO, the direct trade partner of President Agri, said that once the damage involved in the President Agri case was fully appraised, the PWO would immediately take legal action against the company. According to Mrs Oranuj, the auction for the remaining rice would be called later in lots to prevent impact on the domestic rice prices. She said the winners for bids of over 100,000 tonnes would be given four months to collect the rice. The one million tonnes of which President Agri Trading failed to take delivery are worth about 12 billion baht and are still in good condition. Mrs Oranuj said the Thai government preferred selling rice at the government level, particularly with big buyers such as Iran and the Philippines. Thailand is expected to export about eight million tonnes of rice this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 Jeez, what a mess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 eleven 18 wheelers and probably nobody saw a thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 Should donate to N Korea, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted August 31, 2007 Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 Hard to miss.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted August 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 On top of that the Government hasn't spent a lot of it's budget, Billions unspent . . . . begs question why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted August 31, 2007 Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 It's not lost....somebody knows where's it at!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted August 31, 2007 Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 eleven 18 wheelers and probably nobody saw a thing. Nah, a lot of trips with a tuk-tuk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torrenova Posted August 31, 2007 Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 How can you "lose" a million tonnes of rice ? At 40 tonnes per truck you are looking at 25,000 truck loads !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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