Taskforces to police rice-pledging scheme

Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Saraphol said the Foreign Trade Department will announce regulations to control the movement of rice between provinces, especially the 32 provinces on the country's borders, to prevent unqualified rice from being included in the pledging project.

Thailand only allows rice imports from other Asean countries for industrial use under the Asean free-trade area (Afta). Paddy rice imports are not allowed as the country is concerned about the contamination of rice stocks and the inclusion of outside rice into the pledging project. Poom said that about 15 special taskforces have been set up to inspect rice transfer across each province.

Moreover, the government will inspect warehouses and rice millers' stockpiles during the flooding over concerns that some millers are attempting to wrongfully benefit from the pledging project.

Poom said that as many farmers may lose their crops to flooding, millers may join the rice-pledging scheme instead of rice farmers, as they have stockpiles of rice.

The inspections will prevent rice millers from taking advantage of the scheme on behalf of farmers. Any millers and farmers who conspire to defraud the pledging project would be subject to seven years in jail.

Yanyong Phuangrach, Commerce permanent secretary, said the ministry will ask the National Rice Policy Committee to consider extending the period of the rice-pledging project to help farmers affected by the flooding.

Farmers may produce new crops of rice after the flooding. Therefore, the period of harvesting may be extended for a month, he said.

The rice-pledging project is scheduled to run from October 7 to the end of February next year. The project, which is expected to spend Bt410 billion, will not limit amounts of rice that can be pledged. The Agriculture Ministry has made a preliminary estimate that about 500,000 tonnes of paddy rice were destroyed during the current flooding.