Rice exports have declined this year as a result of the rice mortgage scheme implemented by the Pheu Thai Party-led government, a seminar organised by the Democrat Party was told yesterday.

The opposition party organised the seminar to discuss the government's rice programme, which replaced the Democrat Party's price guarantee scheme.

Between Jan 1 and Feb 23, Thailand exported 465,000 tonnes of rice, a drop of 41% from the same period in 2011, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

Chukiat Opaswong, honorary president of the association, said this was because the mortgage price offered by the government's rice pledging scheme is higher than the market price.

The government is paying 15,000 baht a tonne for its rice paddy mortgage scheme while the market price is around 10,000 baht per tonne.

Mr Chukiat said even if Thailand is the world's top rice exporter, shipping 10 million tonnes or about a third of all rice exported globally every year, the country is still in no position to set rice prices in the world market.

He said the export price of Thai rice is now US$130 (3,974 baht) per tonne higher than that of rice from Vietnam.

Foreign competitors are also catching up with the quality of Thai rice because they are putting 10 times as much money into the research and development of rice strains as Thailand is doing, Mr Chukiat said.

Nipon Wongtrangan, a former president of the Thai rice Millers Association, predicted Thailand would lose its status as the world's top rice export this year as Vietnam is expected to export as much as 8 million tonnes while it appears Thailand is not capable of achieving such a feat.

He said that generally there was nothing wrong with a rice pledging scheme, but the government had botched its version.

The suitable guarantee price should not exceed 80% of the selling price, Mr Nipon said.

Democrat MP for Phitsanulok Warong Dejkijwikrom said the pledging scheme is open to abuse and irregularities.

Mr Warong said he has received complaints about farmers being exploited by rice millers.

Farmers do not have much of a choice when it is time to sell and some agreed to sell below the set price to buyers who show up at their farms so they do not have to pay transportation costs, he said.

Mr Warong also said some millers pledged their own paddy under farmers' names. They pay to use farmers' rights to mortgage their output, he said.

Source: Bangkok Post