The government will allow rice to be pledged across pledging zones within the same province and maybe the same region, says Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol.

More than 400 millers are registered to join the rice pledging scheme. But some areas have no participating millers, as they view joining the project as not worth the cost.

Millers want the government to relax conditions to allow farmers to pledge their paddy in other areas.
Mr Poom said the government would try to uphold the principle of pledging rice in the same province but later may allow pledging in the same region.

The Internal Trade Department has been tasked with approving millers to take unmilled rice from farmers in other zones, but they must not have had problems in the past and must be able to work immediately.

The department has been instructed to examine problems related to adulterated paddy, as white rice from the central region could be pledged as fragrant rice from the Northeast.

The price of white paddy rice is still 3,000 baht a tonnes lower than the guaranteed price of 15,000 baht.

Mr Poom said the floods had damaged 11 million rai of cultivation area or 10 million tonnes. So far, just over 300,000 tonnes of paddy have been pledged from a new estimated volume of 18 million.

Other organisations such as the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives predict 4.5 million tonnes of paddy will be damaged.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association agreed with the information of the agricultural agencies that the disaster could cut 3.5 to 4 million tonnes of paddy output, considering that paddy in many plantations was harvested before the inundation _ especially in Suphan Buri province, a major production site.

Thus there will be no shortfall of the grain, as shown by the quite stable market prices over the past month. The export price of 100% B-grade white rice is US$628 a tonne, unchanged from last week and up slightly from $615 a tonne early last month.

However, Kasikorn Reseach Centre forecasts Thai rice prices will rise during the last two months of 2011 on high offers in the rice pledging programme and the flood impact.

Source: Bangkok Post