PHITSANULOK, 18 September 2013The Commerce Ministry has established a committee to investigate the case of rotten and burnt pledged rice being dumped in a warehouse in Phitsanulok Province.
Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach expected that the committee would complete its investigation within 2 weeks. The probing result would later be forwarded to the rice pledging monitoring sub-committee and the National Rice Policy Committee.
Meanwhile, Director General of the Marketing Organization for Farmers Thanetpol Thanaboonyawat reiterated that the 1,000 tons of rice in question were from the 2008 rice pledging scheme. He said the rice was part of the 13,000 ton lot sold to a Chinese firm, with 12,000 tons of the lot already shipped to China. However, the planned shipment of the remainder was stalled by the 2011 floods which also damaged the stored rice.
In an attempt to dry out the damaged rice, the warehouse owner relocated the rice to a space behind the warehouse. Mr. Thanetpol nonetheless stressed that the relocation had been done properly, denying the rumor that the rice was part of the recent rice fraudulent cases.
