Thailand's Commerce Ministry is likely to announce an auction of 500,000 MT of paddy rice for both domestic consumption and export as the government seeks to reduce its rice stockpiles to 2.5 million MT by the end of this year.

Of the total, 245,061 tons was white 5% broken rice from the 2004-05 crop year, 200,000 MT was white 5% broken from the 2005-06 crop year, and 376,333 MT was jasmine fragrant rice from both crop years.