CP executive denies hoarding rice in Yingluck case

CP executive denies hoarding rice in Yingluck case

Former PM Yingluck Shinawatra waves to her supporters at the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders in Bangkok on Aug 19. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Former PM Yingluck Shinawatra waves to her supporters at the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders in Bangkok on Aug 19. (Bangkok Post file photo)

A CP Group executive has denied that the group hoarded rice ahead of the former government's rice-pledging programme, saying that keeping some rice in stock was a normal requirement of the Commerce Ministry.

Sumeth Laomoraphorn, chief of the CP Group's rice business,made the statement on Friday during defence testimony in the trial of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.  

Prosecutors started by pointing out that some group executives were related to former ministers and some leaders of Ms Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party. Mr Sumeth said he was aware of the relationships but refused to speculate whether this was a quid pro quo.

They were referring to former commerce minister Watana Muangsook whose wife is a daughter of CP group executive chairman Sumet Jiaravanon. 

To the question about whether CP hoarded rice ahead of Pheu Thai's election campaign so that it could sell the stock at high prices when the rice-pledging programme took effect, Mr Sumeth denied it.

He explained the group simply complied with a Commerce Ministry requirement.

"As we shipped 1 million tonnes of rice each year, we were required to maintain a stock of 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes, which was normal."

He also said that at the time all parties were campaigning to lift farm prices to help farmers, not just Pheu Thai.

The prosecutors also asked him whether the Yingluck government's policy to buy fertilisers, insecticides and other farm essentials to be sold cheaply to farmers later enriched the group.

Mr Sumeth told the court CP had sold more farm essentials at the time but he did not have the numbers.

He added that the rice-pledging programme aimed to help farmers and improve their living standard, so the pledging prices had to be higher than market prices. He also said high prices were not the reason Thailand slipped in the world rankings of rice exporters.

Before Mr Sumeth, the court heard from Chai Watcharong, a veterinarian and independent academic who disagreed with a Thailand Development Research Institute study that was used by the National Anti-Corruption Commission to indict Ms Yingluck. 

Asked by prosecutors whether farmers bore higher costs under the programme, Mr Chai said that even though they had higher costs, they also had more output. "Importantly, although the programme encouraged farmers to speed up growing the crop, they tried to maintain quality so they could fetch higher prices for it," he said.

He also insisted there were discrepancies in the numbers a subcommittee set up to close the accounts had come up with.

In a related development on Friday, the Anti-Money Laundering Office said it would seize 7 billion baht in assets from two companies including Siam Indica in relation to allegedly fake government-to-government rice deals.

Ms Yingluck is being tried by the court for dereliction of duty under Section 157 of the Criminal Code for her role in the rice-pledging programme. She could face 10 years in jail if convicted, as well as hundreds of billions of baht in civil and administrative penalties.

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