The Commerce Ministry has blamed rice millers for the lower price of rice while exporters are complaining about falling prices because of sluggish demand overseas and difficulties with shipments due to the flooding.

Permanent secretary Yanyong Phuangrach said the ministry planned to allow millers to participate in the government's rice-pledging project across regions after finding that only a small number of them had joined the scheme and caused low prices in the market.

The price of paddy white rice is currently quoted at Bt11,300 a tonne, while the pledging price is set at Bt15,000 a tonne. Paddy jasmine rice is now traded at Bt14,400-Bt16,200 a tonne, still lower than the pledging price of Bt20,000 per tonne.

Yanyong said the rice price had not increased on par with the pledging price as few millers had joined the project.

However, the ministry is confident that the price will rise as more millers will be allowed to join the pledging across the region. Also, the damage to rice crops due to the flooding will help push up the price soon.

The pledging project has seen 553 millers take part, lower than the expected 800. About 1.26 million tonnes of paddy rice had been pledged from October 7 until Tuesday.

Yanyong said more than 10 million tonnes of paddy was expected to enter the pledging scheme this month, after the flooding.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the export price dropped this week on low demand for Thai rice overseas as well as the weakening baht in the past week.

The association reported that between November 16 and 23, the export price of 100 per cent white rice dropped from US$663 to $655 per tonne. The price of jasmine rice dropped from $1,145 to $1,130 per tonne.

Thailand is expected to export 10.5 million tonnes of rice this year, of which 9.89 million tonnes was exported between January and November 15.

Source: The Nation