PM: Be careful or we will harm our rice reputation
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Talk about contaminated rice could hurt sales, farmers, Yingluck warns
People should not generalise all Thai rice as being substandard or contaminated, as the problem of a small amount of low-quality or contaminated rice has been blown out proportion and is negatively affecting all farmers, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned yesterday.
Yingluck made the remark during her weekly television appearance in ‘PM meet the People’ programme yesterday. The premier said some spoiled rice was caused by leaking rice bags being exposed to the elements during transport.
She said on the TV programme after discovering substandard rice at a privately run rice-packaging factory in Ayutthaya that several processes were involved and may have been contaminated during other initial processing prior to arriving at the packaging plant.
Some impurities, such as tiny pieces of stone, soil, bits of wood would have to be removed more thoroughly.
“Factories should be able to find out at which stage their rice was contaminated. Leaking rice bags could present a problem too. If there’s a thorough check at various stages we can use this to explain to the people.
“We’re worried that it may affect the overall picture of the country’s [rice] and will cost loss of revenue. Rice is a staple food and we export a lot and Thai people eat rice too and so we’re concerned that people will feel uncomfortable.
“So we’re rushing the discussion in order to create understanding.
“Normally packaged rice has to be rinsed but we must see how many impurities [foreign particles] are in there,” the prime minister said.
It was imperative that Thailand maintains a high standard for its rice and the past two to three weeks had seen a discussion between various stakeholders in the value chain seeking ways to lift food standards, the PM said. She added that organic agriculture was another area the Kingdom could expand into.
Yingluck also urged rice sellers to consider honesty to the consumers as paramount.
“The reputation of a product’s brand is important. If one aspect suffers, it may lead to the inability to sell the product… If there’s a loss of confidence, no one will buy Thai rice and the burden will be on farmers who will have to switch to other crops.”
In a related development, opposition Democrat Party’s spokesperson Chavanond Intarakomalyasut urged the government to solve the problem at its roots, saying the government’s rice-pledging scheme was to blame.
The scheme was also tainted by corruption and a huge stock of unsold rice, Chavanond told a press conference yesterday.
“Let me say to the government that if you think solving the problem by using state power to harass, threaten or shut the eyes and ears of the people will work – it did not work in the past.”
Finance Minister Thanusak Lek-uthai, meanwhile, said the second stage of the farmers
credit-card scheme would enable farmers to purchase fertiliser, seeds and pesticides at a fair price, interest-free, for a period of five months. Four million farmers would be able to benefit from it, he said.
