Rice stocks to clear in 3 years

The government has vowed to dispose of the 17 million tonnes left in its rice stockpile over the next two or three years through domestic sales as well as exports.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who chairs the National Rice Policy Committee, yesterday said the government could sell the stocks on both a whole-warehouse and a stack basis and planned to beef up local sales.

"Good-quality grains may be sold at once, but the substandard ones should be improved first," he said.

"Nonetheless, any selling should be done at the right time so as not to affect local rice prices."

Workers arrange rice held at a warehouse in Pathum Thani province for officials to examine. The government expects to take no more than three years to clear all 17 million tonnes of rice left stored in warehouses nationwide.  PONGPAT WONGYALA 

However, Gen Prayut said keeping rice in warehouses for a long period was not prudent, as the government must pay 2 billion baht a month to stockpile the grains.

The committee yesterday acknowledged the recent rice audit on state rice stocks, which counted 17.8 million tonnes, although that included 400,000 tonnes already sold and 390,000 tonnes missing.

Of the 17 million tonnes still present, 2.35 million tonnes were found to be of good quality, 14.4 million tonnes substandard and 694,000 tonnes rotten.

The country's rice-subsidy schemes covering 15 harvests since 2004 have resulted in massive losses of 680 billion baht from total costs of 1.1 trillion used to buy 85 million tonnes of paddy.

The subcommittee inspecting the accounting of several governments' rice-subsidy schemes earlier revealed that of the 15 rice-subsidy programmes, four were rice-pledging schemes initiated by the Yingluck Shinawatra government with total losses of 518 billion baht.

Gen Prayut said the committee yesterday also discussed the rice strategy for the next two or three years, with a focus on raising productivity and quality, reducing the plantation area while raising farmers' incomes, and curbing the government's huge losses.

"We hope the next government will continue this strategy and that all political parties will help one another to prevent the corruption incurred in the scheme so far," he said.

Commerce permanent secretary Chutima Bunyapraphasara said selling the rice stocks on a whole-warehouse basis was the most appropriate method due to the different quality of rice held in the various facilities.

But selling the grains could take longer than three years if the market and rice situation are not accommodative, she cautioned.

Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said that as of early this month, Thailand had shipped 10.2 million tonnes of rice so far this year. The full-year figure is estimated at 10.5 to 10.6 million tonnes, as expected.

Thailand has recently regained its status as the world's biggest rice exporter, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.