'80% of rice is fine'
Only 10 per cent of rice stockpiles has spoiled and only some sacks were missing, while 80 per cent was in still good condition, the rice inspection committee reported to the Rice Policy Committee meeting yesterday.
The audit of 18 million tonnes of pledged rice stored in granaries has progressed by 72 per cent to 1,290 out of 1,787 locations nationwide.
Rice releases could not be rushed as the market mechanism has to be relied on to minimise instability in rice prices, said General Chatchai Sarikalaya, the National Council for Peace and Order’s deputy director for economic affairs.
Jirachai Moonthongroy, inspector-general at the PM’s Office, who led the 52nd inspection team, said all 11 warehouses in Phitsanulok have been checked and less than 5 per cent of the rice on record was found missing or exaggerated in volume.
The farm produce centres now being set up in border areas should include rice, NCPO director General Prayuth Chan-ocha said.
He also urged the committee to conduct a feasibility study on applying the coop system to manage these centres.
The centres would gather farm harvests and process them for export, while also purchasing crops from neighbouring countries via a quota system to prevent smuggling into Thailand.