Some 200 millers gathered at the Commerce Ministry yesterday to pressure the government into cancelling its order to suspend rice polishing, which caused them to lose income.

Rice millers cannot purchase the new rice crop in the market as they have no room to store it. This will lead to a fall in price soon as there's an oversupply of paddy rice in the market," said Chanchai Rakthananon, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association.

The ministry had send a letter to instruct millers belonging to the government's pledging programme to halt operations since the National Rice Policy Committee has turned to bidding for paddy rice instead of polished rice as usual.

About 1.5 million-2 million tonnes of the new rice crop will enter the market this month, but silos are still full, he said.

Normally, millers polish rice daily as stocking paddy rice requires more space in warehouses. About one tonne of paddy rice can be milled down to 660 kilograms of polished rice.

Millers can make Bt400 per tonne polishing the government's rice, as well as use the rice husk and grist left after milling.

Chanchai said the millers will give the government three days to manage the situation, otherwise they will march to the ministry again and boycott any pledging or bidding projects of the government.

An industry source suspected that the ministry had a hidden agenda. Some politicians or officials may want to pave the way for parboiled rice exporters to enjoy a lower price by buying rice at the government's auctions following the drop in the rice price in the market.

However, Thanaporn Sriyakul, adviser to Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai, said the government issued the directive to delay rice polishing as it wants to ensure enough supply of paddy rice for the upcoming bidding.

"Parboiled rice is in high demand for exports at the present. The government must clearly operate our stockpiles for selling to rice bidders," he said.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry has called for government agencies to thoroughly destroy rice plantations in Tak's Mae Tao district after the Central Laboratory (Thailand) found cadmium contamination in rice planted in the area.

About 13,000 rai of fields are planted in rice in Tak.Thanaporn said agencies must strictly solve the problem as it could ruin the country's image.

So far, no contaminated rice has been found in exports. Contamination could also cause problems for domestic consumption, so the government must quickly destroy all rice from the area.

Source: The Nation