Government says 16.7 million tons of pledged rice can be sold

[NeverSure]

I think we are being bamboozled here. Didn't Panadda (who wants to indict Yingluck) say that 85% of the stored rice was rotten only yesterday? And now today, we hear that 95% can be sold at auction? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Ehm, maybe more like

"A lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and a politician from her Pheu Thai Party yesterday accused PM's Office Minister Panadda Diskul of having a hidden political agenda when he said just 12.2 per cent of rice stored in government warehouses under the rice-pledging scheme was up to standard."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/785738-panadda-accused-of-hidden-political-agenda/

with this topic having 2.1 million tons of rice up to standard, while another 14.4 million tons need to be re-graded, all out of 17.89 million tonnes. So, that means 11.74% of all up-to-standard, 92% of all can be sold, 8% of all spoiled.

Much of it has been stolen as evidenced by warehouses that appeared to be full, but upon inspection were hollow with just rows of rice stacked around the perimeters.

They found one warehouse with this issue.

The total they now claim is missing is in 100,000 Mt from 18,000,000.

Less than 1% which would be by now covered by mould loss and wastage. Yes 100k Mt is a lot of product in absolute terms. But in relation to the 100mn tonnes that were bought over these 3 or 4 years it is nothing.

What about the clear fact that they were paying far above market price for it? They paid 15K baht per ton when the market price was and is much less than that.

I don't believe their claims now. They had reports of stolen rice, of rice paid for that never existed and so on.

[Thai at Heart]

I think we are being bamboozled here. Didn't Panadda (who wants to indict Yingluck) say that 85% of the stored rice was rotten only yesterday? And now today, we hear that 95% can be sold at auction? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Ehm, maybe more like

"A lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and a politician from her Pheu Thai Party yesterday accused PM's Office Minister Panadda Diskul of having a hidden political agenda when he said just 12.2 per cent of rice stored in government warehouses under the rice-pledging scheme was up to standard."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/785738-panadda-accused-of-hidden-political-agenda/

with this topic having 2.1 million tons of rice up to standard, while another 14.4 million tons need to be re-graded, all out of 17.89 million tonnes. So, that means 11.74% of all up-to-standard, 92% of all can be sold, 8% of all spoiled.

Much of it has been stolen as evidenced by warehouses that appeared to be full, but upon inspection were hollow with just rows of rice stacked around the perimeters.

They found one warehouse with this issue.

The total they now claim is missing is in 100,000 Mt from 18,000,000.

Less than 1% which would be by now covered by mould loss and wastage. Yes 100k Mt is a lot of product in absolute terms. But in relation to the 100mn tonnes that were bought over these 3 or 4 years it is nothing.

What about the clear fact that they were paying far above market price for it? They paid 15K baht per ton when the market price was and is much less than that.

I don't believe their claims now. They had reports of stolen rice, of rice paid for that never existed and so on.

Yes, that is exactly what subsidies do all the world over. Widely used in the USA,Europe, Japan, and many other developed or large agribusiness nation.

Their claims are coming from the very people who have every interest in finding anything they can. So far, pretty poor evidence of criminal wrong doing.

[DaffyDuck]

I think we are being bamboozled here. Didn't Panadda (who wants to indict Yingluck) say that 85% of the stored rice was rotten only yesterday? And now today, we hear that 95% can be sold at auction? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Business 101:

Buying for 15.000, selling for 1000 equals loss!!

With the Thai people picking up the bill!!

That's why the taxpayers have a wee bit of a problem with this marvelous 'self-financing' scheme (Thaksin thinks) Pheu Thai came up with.

But... but... but... LazarusRising thinks it is all proof of the brilliance of the Thaksin clan, and that Yingluk's brilliance, etc...

[HUAHIN62]

That's the number we've had from the beginning. 700 billion baht.

But it is a "revolving fund" loan from the Ag Bank. I wonder how the bond sales are going where they are trying to sell bonds to pay the bank loan?

How can they have this much rice when they bought only about 18 million tons and much went missing? How can so much of it be marketable when so much of it was reported to have gone bad or been stolen? How about the warehouses that had rows stacked around the perimeter but were actually empty inside when inspected?

I think they are full of it again.

They are always "going" to do something but I don't recall an instance where they reported they actually did something of note.

Get back to me when you have sold the rice and paid off the Ag Bank.

You are forgetting that when the previous government took office there were about 7 mil tons in stock from the Dems schemes stock. The grading definitions have never been published which leaves the door open for fraud. Lets look it this way. They downgrade the rice to a lower quality, which lowers the expected price. The seller then sells it at the lower price but negotiate a kickback from the buyer, both the buyer and seller scores but the country loose. Until they have an independent auditor like KPMG come in to audit the stock I don't believe a word.

[rubl]

I think we are being bamboozled here. Didn't Panadda (who wants to indict Yingluck) say that 85% of the stored rice was rotten only yesterday? And now today, we hear that 95% can be sold at auction? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Ehm, maybe more like

"A lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and a politician from her Pheu Thai Party yesterday accused PM's Office Minister Panadda Diskul of having a hidden political agenda when he said just 12.2 per cent of rice stored in government warehouses under the rice-pledging scheme was up to standard."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/785738-panadda-accused-of-hidden-political-agenda/

with this topic having 2.1 million tons of rice up to standard, while another 14.4 million tons need to be re-graded, all out of 17.89 million tonnes. So, that means 11.74% of all up-to-standard, 92% of all can be sold, 8% of all spoiled.

Much of it has been stolen as evidenced by warehouses that appeared to be full, but upon inspection were hollow with just rows of rice stacked around the perimeters.

They found one warehouse with this issue.

The total they now claim is missing is in 100,000 Mt from 18,000,000.

Less than 1% which would be by now covered by mould loss and wastage. Yes 100k Mt is a lot of product in absolute terms. But in relation to the 100mn tonnes that were bought over these 3 or 4 years it is nothing.

Three or four years?

The RPPS officially started on 2011-10-07

[billd766]

That's the number we've had from the beginning. 700 billion baht.

But it is a "revolving fund" loan from the Ag Bank. I wonder how the bond sales are going where they are trying to sell bonds to pay the bank loan?

How can they have this much rice when they bought only about 18 million tons and much went missing? How can so much of it be marketable when so much of it was reported to have gone bad or been stolen? How about the warehouses that had rows stacked around the perimeter but were actually empty inside when inspected?

I think they are full of it again.

They are always "going" to do something but I don't recall an instance where they reported they actually did something of note.

Get back to me when you have sold the rice and paid off the Ag Bank.

quote "How can they have this much rice when they bought only about 18 million tons and much went missing?"

How about the 18 million tons of rice was only for ONE year and the scam was running for 3 years? 3 x 18 = 54 million tons.

They used to export 10 million tons plus every year so that would account for over 30 million tons and these are just my guesstimate figures. This government hopes to sell 11 million next year and how much new crop of rice will come onto the markets as well.

[billd766]

They can pobably sell ALL the rice that is in stock but the price will be nowhere near what was paid for it.

It will be sold at a big loss to the nations treasury, even more so as until it is sold the storage costs will mount every month.

A big round of applause to Thaksin Shinawatra for thinking up such a brilliant scheme and one for his sister, Yingluck for carrying the scheme out with such skill and aplomb.

Well note how this is a massive clarification from only 10% being up to grade a few weeks ago.

I don't know how much they will reduce the price to sell this old crop. But of course they have clearly stated that the loss will be 600bazillion so I guess CP is going to get its hands on some very cheap rice, very soon.

Final sale price to the client unknown of course.

Final loss to the government and the Thai people is unknown also but certainly it will be in excess of 700,000,000,000 baht. Not too far away from the balanced budget and revolving fund is it?

[jcisco]

I think we are being bamboozled here. Didn't Panadda (who wants to indict Yingluck) say that 85% of the stored rice was rotten only yesterday? And now today, we hear that 95% can be sold at auction? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Ehm, maybe more like

"A lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and a politician from her Pheu Thai Party yesterday accused PM's Office Minister Panadda Diskul of having a hidden political agenda when he said just 12.2 per cent of rice stored in government warehouses under the rice-pledging scheme was up to standard."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/785738-panadda-accused-of-hidden-political-agenda/

with this topic having 2.1 million tons of rice up to standard, while another 14.4 million tons need to be re-graded, all out of 17.89 million tonnes. So, that means 11.74% of all up-to-standard, 92% of all can be sold, 8% of all spoiled.

Much of it has been stolen as evidenced by warehouses that appeared to be full, but upon inspection were hollow with just rows of rice stacked around the perimeters.

They found one warehouse with this issue.

The total they now claim is missing is in 100,000 Mt from 18,000,000.

Less than 1% which would be by now covered by mould loss and wastage. Yes 100k Mt is a lot of product in absolute terms. But in relation to the 100mn tonnes that were bought over these 3 or 4 years it is nothing.

Your usage of SI prefixes and units leaves much to be desire Mt and mn. Mt = T mn = M I guess...

[maidee]

the spoiled rice could have fed a nation

but greed is king here

[Robby nz]

That's the number we've had from the beginning. 700 billion baht.

But it is a "revolving fund" loan from the Ag Bank. I wonder how the bond sales are going where they are trying to sell bonds to pay the bank loan?

How can they have this much rice when they bought only about 18 million tons and much went missing? How can so much of it be marketable when so much of it was reported to have gone bad or been stolen? How about the warehouses that had rows stacked around the perimeter but were actually empty inside when inspected?

I think they are full of it again.

They are always "going" to do something but I don't recall an instance where they reported they actually did something of note.

Get back to me when you have sold the rice and paid off the Ag Bank.

You are forgetting that when the previous government took office there were about 7 mil tons in stock from the Dems schemes stock. The grading definitions have never been published which leaves the door open for fraud. Lets look it this way. They downgrade the rice to a lower quality, which lowers the expected price. The seller then sells it at the lower price but negotiate a kickback from the buyer, both the buyer and seller scores but the country loose. Until they have an independent auditor like KPMG come in to audit the stock I don't believe a word.

Much of that 7 million tons was left over from the previous Thaksin scheme The Dems sold most of what they had in stock.

I didn't see it on this site but there was a story in the BKK post on 19th of this month about the Dems being cleared by the NACC of irregularities in rice sales.

Google "Democrats rice sale" and it will come up as the top story if you are interested.

You also have to understand that Thailand (as do most countries) keeps around a years domestic stock of rice (staple grain) in case of emergencies, this is normal and this stock is rotated and stored in optimum conditions.

The old stock may or may not have been part of that, but the fact that that stock is kept meant that the purpose built silos were already full, so when the pledging scheme came along and more rice had to be stored it was stored in less than optimum conditions and, as we see even in very poor conditions.

As for fraud, grading definitions have nothing to do with the auctions that will now be held, for the buyers are to have access to the rice on sale before they bid so they can make their own decisions as to the condition and the value. This has already happened in the auctions that have been held since new management took over.

While saying that there is a floor price set which is expected to be met so the seller, commerce ministry, will have made their own decision on value rather than grade.

The idea now is to get buyer confidence back by honest dealing and the reputation of Thai rice back, a reputation which has been ruined by sub standard rice being shipped by the previous administration to several countries.

This resulted in a shipment being returned from the US, the Ivory Coast dumping a percentage of a shipment and Iran, once one of the top five buyers, refusing to buy Thai rice.

I somehow doubt there will be kickbacks either paid or asked for (accepted) considering the previous commerce minister, his deputy and 13 of their cohorts are now looking at corruption charges, as in ' big brother is watching and will stand for no nonsense'.

[chotthee]

Thailand should NOT sell the rice in stock.

It should be kept as evident to prosecute Yingluck.

Let Yingluck pay for her crime.

If Prayuth sold the rice, it will favour Yingluck in her corruption case.

[Robby nz]

Thailand should NOT sell the rice in stock.

It should be kept as evident to prosecute Yingluck.

Let Yingluck pay for her crime.

If Prayuth sold the rice, it will favour Yingluck in her corruption case.

Not so mate, its not the rice itself but the fact that she failed to heed warnings and failed to take action that may have prevented or at least minimized loss that are the contentious issues.

These failures are what is leading to the charges of negligence so whether the rice is actually there (sold) or not proves nothing.