The government will invite international bids for maize and tapioca in the state stockpile to prevent collusion by local traders, says Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu.

Having foreign as well as Thai buyers would make the bidding transparent and competitive, said Mr Korbsak, who chairs a committee set up to handle the commodity sales.

More importantly, he said, it would prevent bids from being manipulated by certain local cartels.

He said the government would also demand that all tapioca and maize be exported in order to prevent traders from steering the crops back into the local market to exploit high government pledging prices in the next season.

Currently, the government has about 3.4 million tonnes of tapioca chips including 200,000 tonnes to be traded on the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET), and 800,000 tonnes of tapioca starch in its stockpile.

The maize stockpile is estimated at one million tonnes.

Mr Korbsak said the Commerce Ministry would be directed to call bids for all stocks soon after the plan wins cabinet approval on Tuesday.

Sales could be pursued both on a government-to-government basis and in deals with the private sector, he said.

Bidding prices would depend on the quality of the products in stock and the volume of each tender.

Potential foreign buyers for tapioca chips include China, the European Union and Japan. The Philippines, Japan and China have strong interest in tapioca starch.

In a related development, rice exporters yesterday yesterday urged the coalition parties to settle political disputes over rice sales. The Commerce Ministry has been ordered to suspend delivery of all 2.6 million tonnes of second-crop rice won at recent auctions including 100,000 tonnes already paid for.

"We don't mind the government scrapping the deals not yet paid, but for the portion that we paid the government, it should at least allow us to take out our grain," said Sompong Kitireanglarp, the president of the rice exporter Ponglarp Co.

The cabinet last month stopped the sales for fear of losses, even though the ministry had signed deals with 17 companies.