Senate panel seeks proof of China rice deal

The committee gave the ministry seven days to submit evidence for investigation.

Paiboon Nititawan, an appointed senator, said yesterday that the letter has been sent to Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, permanent secretary Vachari Vimooktayon and Pranee Siriphand, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department.

Boonsong had surprised the market by saying the ministry has agreed with China to export 5 million tonnes of rice in a three-year deal, but yesterday insisted that the ministry had reached a memorandum of understanding to sell such a big quantity of rice to China.

"We’ve talked with China for a long time on a G-to-G rice deal but just proposed it for Cabinet approval last week," he said.

The ministry is negotiating with a few other countries to purchase Thai rice and there will be good news soon, he said.

The National Rice Policy Committee yesterday ordered the investigation of some surveyors, complaining that they have ignored their duty to inspect rice quality in government warehouses. This has damaged rice quality in the government’s stockpile and led to losses.

The ministry through its Internal Trade Department also filed a complaint against Trihirun 2012, a rice miller under the government’s rice-pledging programme in Ubon Ratchathani. The company has been accused of selling rice under the scheme two times without a permit involving 1,500 tonnes.

A seminar yesterday on Thailand’s rice policy revolution in the future pointed out that Thailand is facing declining rice production as farmers have shifted to other crops that generate higher income such as sugarcane and rubber.

Charnchai Rakthananont, chairman of the Thai Rice Mills Association, said the rice plantation area in Thailand, particularly for high quality rice such as jasmine rice, is shrinking. This was because other crops such as sugarcane and rubber generated higher income.

"Despite the government’s rice-pledging scheme setting the price at Bt20,000 per tonne of jasmine rice, the total income that farmers make is still lower than for those two crops," he said.

About half of the country’s total rice-planting area, mainly for sticky rice, is used for household consumption rather than for commercial sales. Farmers have also sold their paddy fields to businessmen as land prices rise in line with the growing economy.

The drought is also a major problem for farmers, as their harvests have dropped. Particularly hard hit has been jasmine rice, which is mainly planted in the Northeast. The drought now covers 400,000 rai of farmland. The problem will affect not only rice exports but also rice packaged for domestic consumption, as the quality will be lower.

Charnchai also insisted that the forecast by the Agricultural Economics Office of 30 million tonnes of paddy rice for the harvest season is overestimated. The association believes the figure came from the pledging scheme, whose volume has reached 21 million tonnes. However, the extra rice would come from circumvention.

Exporters also said it would be hard for Thailand to regain its title of the world’s biggest rice exporting county as the government has extended the price-pledging policy.