Thailand raises guaranteed prices of rice paddy

BANGKOK, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Thai government on Monday raised its guaranteed prices of rice paddy in response to rising production cost of farmers, a senior official said.

The national rice policy committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva decided to increase its guaranteed prices of rice paddy to 11,000 baht (360 U.S. dollars) per ton from the current 10,000 baht (328 dollars), according to Yangyong Phuangrach, permanent secretary to the Commerce Ministry.

For a higher quality strain of paddy, the guaranteed price is raised to 11,500 baht (377 dollars) per ton from 11,000 baht, Yangyong was quoted as saying by the English-language Bangkok Post online.

The price of sticky rice is also raised to 10,000 baht per ton from the current 9,500 baht (311 dollars).

Each farmer household will now be entitled to have 30 tons of rice paddy guaranteed under the scheme, from the current 25 tons, Yangyong said.

He said the government would need 30 billion baht (984 million dollars) for the new price guarantee scheme.

(Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/07/c_13765727.htm)