Straits Times 22 Dec 11;
THREE supermarket chains here have promised to freeze the prices of their Thai house-brand rice till the end of February, amid concerns about rising rice prices following floods in Thailand.
The first to announce the decision yesterday was NTUC FairPrice, followed by Giant and Shop N Save in the evening.
FairPrice sells nine types of house-brand rice from Thailand - from basic white rice to the superior Thai Hom Mali variety. The supermarket chain sells 35 types of house-brand rice in all, including varieties from countries such as Cambodia and Australia.
It also announced last month that it is holding the price of its house-brand Vietnamese rice till February. It sells only one type of house-brand rice from Vietnam.
Currently, its most popular type of house-brand Thai rice, Double FP Thai Hom Mali Premium Quality Fragrant Rice, costs $11.45 for a 5kg bag. FairPrice Thai White Rice costs $6.20 for a 5kg bag. Giant and Shop N Save were unable to provide more details.
Mr Seah Kian Peng, FairPrice's chief executive officer (Singapore), said the prices of Thai rice had eased off a bit recently.
'Prices have softened in the past week as the flood situation improves. This has allowed us to hold prices,' he said, adding that he hopes the trend will continue.
'We know many of our customers still love Thai rice, so we are making a commitment to hold prices till after the Chinese New Year celebrations.'
Just last month, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan assured consumers that the floods in Thailand - Asia's 'rice bowl' - would not send rice prices up here.
He cited two reasons: Importers have long-term contracts with their suppliers, and there is a range of sources there.
FairPrice is also able to hold rice prices steady as it has more than three months' worth of rice stockpiled.
Last year, Singapore imported 310,135 tonnes of rice. Some 53 per cent came from Thailand, 26.2 per cent from Vietnam and 13.8 per cent from India. The rest came from countries such as Myanmar, the United States and China.
JESSICA LIM
