Thai animal feed-meal producers have opposed the Cabinet's measure to allow duty-free import of broken rice for manufacture of food products only, arguing that it could lead to hikes in the prices of feed meal and meat.
The comment came after the Cabinet yesterday approved zero-tariff imports of broken rice under the Asean Free Trade Agreement, but only for the food-manufacturing industry.
Pornsilp Patcharintanakul, president of the Thai Feed Meal Association, said the government was wrong to limit the type of industrial use in this way.
The feed-meal industry also needs broken rice as an ingredient for its own production, therefore the measure should also cover this type of business so that manufacturers could enjoy lower costs, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankhiri, who is chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee, said the restriction had been drawn up to protect against a flood of imported, low-priced broken rice. High imports from neighbouring countries would damage domestic rice prices, he said.
"Feed-meal prices might be increased if we face higher manufacturing costs. Finally, the industry would push the burden onto livestock farmers, which would cause higher meat prices as farmers in turn faced higher production costs," said Pornsilp.
The cost of broken rice in Thailand is much higher than that in neighbouring countries. Thai broken rice is quoted at Bt12 a kilogram, while it is just Bt6-Bt7 a kilo in Burma.
He added that the feed-meal industry would only import broken rice if it were necessary to do so, as it entailed high management costs. Manufacturers would only bring in foreign rice if the domestic price were too high.
The industry needs an average of 1 million tonnes of broken rice per year. Normally, it uses domestic supplies only.
Under the import measure approved yesterday, Thailand will only allow broken-rice imports during two periods - May to July and August to October. Importers must declare a clear objective for bringing in each shipment from neighbouring countries, so that the government can ensure the imports are not combined with Thai rice grains.
Other rice import-control measures focus on sanitary standards, rules of origin, pesticide use and quality contamination.
The government is also taking steps to ensure GMO (genetically modified organism) crops are excluded.
