Kittiratt urges consumers to reach into pockets for rice farmers
Consumers will ultimately foot the bill for the government's ricepledging scheme, paying at least 50 satang more per rice dish to cover subsidies amounting to several billion baht.
After a meeting of the National Rice Policy Committee yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittiratt NaRanong said Thais would have to pay more for rice dishes to shore up prices for farmers.
"It's not that we aren't worried about consumers, but highpurchasing groups should spend more money," Kittiratt said, adding that the government plans to produce bags of lowerpriced rice through the ministry's "blue flag" project. However, the ministry has yet to offer any details of the price of such rice, or when the project will be launched.
The meeting settled on subsidised rates for paddy rice of Bt20,000 for jasmine rice; Bt15,000 for white rice; Bt14,800 for 5percent rice; Bt14,600 for 10percent white rice; Bt14,200 for 15percent white rice; and Bt13,800 for 25percent white rice.
Farmers must be approved by the Agriculture Extension Department, the management of local administrations and the Agriculture Ministry in order to qualify for the subsidy.
Kittiratt said the farmers would need to wait four months to redeem their rice, as the scheme is effective from October 7 to the end of February.
Responding to widespread predictions that the scheme will result in a big loss for the government, Kittiratt said this would depend on demand and supply in the global market, as well as how well Thailand manages releases of rice from its stockpile.
"Those who abuse this project for corrupt purposes will be responsible for any losses," he said.
Six subcommittees have been set up to focus on production; marketing; provinciallevel inspections; the pledging policy; release of stockpiles; and monitoring and inspection of the project as a whole.
