BANGKOK, 28 February 2013 The Commerce Minister has branded a report on the proposed cut in paddy prices under the government’s pledging scheme as inaccurate.
According to the Director General of the Department of Internal Trade, Ms. Wiboonrak Ruamrak, the Commerce Ministry will not ask the Rice Policy Committee to consider reducing the current buying prices of paddy rice from 15,000 baht per ton currently and the price of Jasmine rice paddy from 20,000 baht per ton, despite a complaint that both prices were unnecessarily high.
She said the Rice Policy Committee’s next meeting will take place in March, not tomorrow as reported in the media, since Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom is out of the country.
Pending the meeting, the Commerce Ministry, in its capacity as secretary general of the Rice Policy Committee, will collect public opinions and concerns on the guaranteed prices. She said that it was entirely up to the Rice Policy Committee to decide if the paddy prices should be adjusted.
