Prayut orders quality check for rice mills

Prayut orders quality check for rice mills

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered the Commerce Ministry to quickly check the standard of rice mills nationwide to ensure the quality of Thai grain.

While opening the Thailand Rice Convention 2015 at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi province Wednesday, Gen Prayut said that fierce competition in the global rice market, as well as the government's large expenditures for warehousing, required the government to have high-standard mills to ensure top quality.

He said the government paid about 10 billion baht to millers to warehouse rice ever year.

Substandard rice mills will be closed and the government will store rice with farmers' cooperatives instead, he said.

Apart from ensuring quality, the prime minister said that his government would also devise solutions to improve the quality of life and financial stability of rice farmers, including fair and efficient marketing systems.

The government intended not only to build Thailand into the world's biggest rice exporter, but also to make rice growers financially independent, Gen Prayut said.

Thailand fell short to India last year in its pursuit of the largest-exporter title, shipping 10.97 million tonnes of rice worth US$5.44 billion.

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