The number of rice millers in the government's pledging programme is expected to exceed 1,000 although only 667 have signed up so far, says a source from the Internal Trade Department.

So far, 482 millers have registered with the Public Warehouse Organisation and 185 with the Marketing Organisation for Farmers for the programme that will start officially on Friday.

However, an unofficial survey by the department official shows 937 millers say they will join the project. The figure does not include millers from the South where the scheme will start later.

The source said the number of participants this year would be higher than the 752 millers who took part in 2008, the last time pledging took place. The country has around 3,000 millers.

Somsak Wongwattanasant, a PWO vice-president, said the current floods had slowed registrations, with around 150 millers with combined capacity of 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes a month in 14 provinces absent at the moment.

But he remains optimistic that their absence would not have any impact on the programme, which will run through end of February.

"Their operations are in the same flood-hit farm areas. If the water recedes, farmers and millers still have time to join the scheme," Mr Somsak said.

Since the PWO has limited storage capacity of about 150,000 tonnes, millers have played a significant role in providing facilities to keep paddy for the government, which aims to pledge as many as 25 million tonnes of paddy this season.

The floods would reduce the volume of mortgaged grain as 6 million rai of farmland have been damaged, cutting paddy output by about 500,000 tonnes.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association forecasts rice exports will slow down after pledging starts, with orders from foreign buyers dropping compared with the first nine months when importers rushed to buy Thai rice to avoid paying higher prices from the mortgage plan.

In the first eight months, the Thai rice industry registered a record sales of 8.2 million tonnes, up 55% from 5.3 million tonnes a year earlier. Exports were still high in September at more than 800,000 tonnes for the delivery of orders placed months before.

In a related development, the cabinet approved two memoranda of understanding with Indonesia and Bangladesh to sell up to one million tonnes of rice each year under the government-to-government contracts.

A five-year agreement with Indonesia will expire in December and will be extended, while the agreement with Bangladesh will end in 2013. Actual purchases depend on negotiations.

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-Operatives will reserve 3.8 billion baht to cover the expenses of the Marketing Organisation for Farmers in accepting 10 million tonnes of paddy.

Source: Bangkok Post