GGF Group, a Malaysia-Thai joint venture company, has secured a 200 million USD contract to build and operate 400 high-tech rice silos in Thailand’s 10 provinces.
GGF Group’s Managing Director Datuk Robert Heng was cited by the Malaysian news agency Bernama as saying that the silos, expected to be ready within two years, will have the capacity to store two million metric tonnes of rice.
"We are building 40 silos in each province, with a 30-year guarantee, leased by the government. Each silo is nine-storey’s high and can hold 5,000 tonnes of rice," he added.
Heng was confident the project - the company's first in Thailand - was viable as rice is a staple food and commands an ever growing market.
Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, sold 9.56 million tonnes of the staple food in 2007 and 10.01 million tonnes last year.
In the first six months of 2009, Thailand sold 4.72 million tonnes of rice to overseas buyers, said Bernama.
The news agency reported Heng as saying that GGF was also planning to build rice mills in Cambodia and Vietnam./.