The commerce minister claims that a Chinese state-owned enterprise (Beidahuang) will definitely purchase 1.2 million tonnes of white rice from the Thai government’s stockpile at a good price within the next two weeks. The buyer is also said to be interested in buying 200,000 tonnes of rubber.
A Reuters news article on Sept 12 claims that "talks on a government-to-government deal had been taking place with Thailand for some time but nothing had been settled, but also noted that "it is impossible for China to import that much rice as China doesn't need that much."
Democrat Party leader Korn Chatikavanij questioned the authenticity of the deal and demanded that government show the public the actual contract. The fact that the government is planning to raise the borrowing limit to pay farmers for rice instead of paying with the proceeds of rice sales is said to provide further evidence that is there is in fact no China rice contract.